Change of Fate: Book 3
by vildtiger
Summary: An AU where fate and the future are much more fickle, so easy to change that even those with the gazing eyes- the Foretellers can't always predict the future but have every intention to aim it at their chosen path. Nobodies aren't meant to feel, but four of them are unable to deny the bond they share with one another. Only that they are best friends.
1. Chosen by the Keyblade

**All right, so now we're into the book where there are a lot more changes into the plot itself, and it's where if there are no changes, it won't be involved. It mostly includes missions, and because there are so darn many, I can't tell you every single one. So in this book, if the mission is not included, then it's going like it would in the game. **

**Enjoy!**

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Two members of the keyblade are in the Organization fold, number XIII and XIV, Roxas and Xion, and unlike all of the other members, neither have memories of before the Organization. However, of entirely different reasons but only a few know why. But the true reason for their importance is the fact that both can wield the powerful weapon called the keyblade. The only weapon that can properly claim the heart stolen by the Heartless.

Axel, number VIII, has been given the task of handling Roxas until the teenager boy would show any signs of awareness, which was met with a lot of fake complaints from the fire-wielding man, but still, he took to the role quite well. For some reason, no one was tasked in looking after Xion. Only Vexen did from time to time check up on them before disappearing back to his laboratory to do whatever the hell that mad scientist was doing down there, leaving Xion standing around either in the Grey Area or inside their room.

Over time, Roxas started to show awareness. At first, his missions were simple and meant to train his mind for the Heartless battles to come. Each of these missions was with the other members, all who taught him certain skills and others would explain why it was so important to have a keyblade. Roxas's mind was still too new to fully understand his purpose, so he spent most of his early days learning and after missions, would join Axel on the clock tower to eat ice-cream. He enjoyed those moments the most, more so when he came to understand that Axel has been taking care of him when he was— as Axel called it 'spacing out.'

Axel called them friends, and Roxas might not understand what it meant, still felt it was something good.

Not long after, Axel left for a mission in Castle Oblivion with several other members. For the first time, Roxas felt bad and soon started to wonder when Axel would return so they could eat ice cream together.

With almost half of their members gone, it meant that the remaining had to put on extra work. Roxas didn't really mind but found himself unsure when Saix, probably the member he least liked, assigned him to teach Xion how to do missions. Unsure how to do that, Roxas resorted to merely show Xion by attacking whatever Heartless that would pop up. Xion only used magic and never spoke, which did make the teenager boy very unsure how to talk with Xion, more so that they left the moment the mission was over.

However, after a couple of awkward missions together, Xion spoke his name with a clear female, though unsure voice.

The next day after that, Xion pulled down the hood, revealing a teenager girl with raven black hair and striking blue eyes, she smiled to him. "Let's work hard again today, okay?" She spoke, giving him a sweet and cheerful smile. It caught Roxas off guard, but he quickly agreed with himself that he liked her talking over that eerie silent treatment she gave him at the start.

They went on a mission, and when he got in trouble where his keyblade got hit out from his hands, the word of her being able to wield a keyblade was proven correct as she took his keyblade and struck the giant Heartless. After that, Roxas took her up to the clock tower the same way Axel did to him during the first mission.

He told her what Axel had told him that friends do this sort of thing.

"Does the mean we're friends?" Xion asked.

Well, Roxas wasn't entirely sure, he needed to ask Axel about it but must admit that he liked the idea of having Xion as a friend as well.

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"What do you mean everyone was wiped out?" Roxas demands to Xigbar after having gotten the news from both him and Demyx, he didn't understand fully what "wiped out" meant, only that it made his chest feels like its getting squeezed by an invisible hand.

"They have been terminated, gone, never to be seen again." Xigbar explains the boy, and much to his annoyance, Demyx exclaims, "Whoa there, you can't say it like that old man!" That's possibly the worst insult anyone can call him. Sure he is old but does not like to be reminded about it. He whacks the younger member hard over the head, almost knocking Demyx out. He then turns to Roxas when the kid asks: "What? What happened?"

"That's none of your concern." Saix, the second-in-command of the Organization tells Roxas in his constant icy and harsh voice, not at all caring of have lost so many members other than those that remains has to pick up the slack. Not that Roxas understands for the kid continues to asks questions: "What about Axel?"

This does make him think for a moment. About the man who he shared a close past with but he cannot feel sorrow for the loss. He cannot care, and besides, there are more urgent matters than pretending to be grieving over what remained of his past. "Gone, he may have disappeared for good." He replies Roxas, finding himself unable to meet the boy's eyes. He shouldn't be able to feel. It's only his memories that gives him the illusion of grief, he cannot feel sorrow. "In any case," He decides to focus on his job. It will help to distract his mind from this unfortunate loss. "your mission today will be with Xigbar." He opens a portal to send them off.

Xigbar quirks a smirk at how cold and uncaring Saix is from have lost so many of their members, especially when he knows that one of those happened to had been the best friend with Saix here and it better not make Saix go rouge on them. Now that Xemnas no longer has that over Moon-boy. "You heard the man, gear up and let's go." He tells Roxas, who seems quite affected by the whole deal.

Heading out on the mission, Roxas is unfocused and has forced Xigbar to save his butt more times than he likes to count.

Okay, that's it. Time to put an upgrade on the kid. "Still with me there? I've seen you spaced out before, but this is ridiculous." He teases the kid, and as hoped, it snaps Roxas back to reality. "Alright, kiddo. As much as I love saving your skin, I would prefer not having to haul you back." Xigbar throws blue and yellow yellow-five pointed star to the kid.

Roxas catches it, blinking in confusion at the token. "What's this?"

"Put it near the keyblade." Roxas does, and the light from the keyblade makes the token into a keychain, Xigbar smirks in how the kid jumps in surprise from how it made the keyblade change form. "Nifty trick isn't it? Not only does it change the appearance of your little toy, but powers it up at certain places." And right on time, Heartless appears, "Why don't you try it out?"

With the changed keyblade in hand, Roxas attacks and realizes his keyblade is lighter and thus allows for more aerial attacks. With the last Heartless taken out, he watches the heart float away, and it makes him wonder. "Hey, where do the Heartless go when they're destroyed?"

Xigbar stops his walk in search of more Heartless, eyeing the kid with his remaining eye. "They don't go anywhere. They're gone. only the hearts they held remain," He tells Roxas in a simple matter of fact, and already knowing where this is going. "and we Nobodies aren't much different. 'Cept, we don't leave anything behind as we shouldn't exist in the first place."

This scourging hot desert suddenly feels incredibly cold. "Then… whoever was at Castle Oblivion—"

"Gone"

"And I am never going to see them again?"

Xigbar smirks at this, "Nope." the kid looks so broken, but it's not like he got the heart to care, wouldn't even if he had one. Xigbar starts walking again, "You coming?" but it seems Roxas just has to be a big pain in the ass. For right there, the kid passes out for no apparent reason. "Great…" He groans to the collapsed body lying not far from him.

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As Roxas is still in his coma, everything depends on Xion, and that one was not doing a good enough job collecting hearts. Xemnas decides to put the puppet through training, and the one who should do it would be the one not giving it any slack: Saix.

Saix is not particularly pleased to have received such a command. In his eyes, it was a waste of time. The creation of Vexen might wield the keyblade, but every time he looks at Xion, he sees something that fills him with such a pain that it makes him angry. It takes a lot out from him not to summon his claymore and eliminate the puppet right where it stands, but he is smart enough to know that it's unwise to argue with the superior.

After having given the other members their mission, Saix turns to Xion, wishing that one didn't have that obnoxious ability. It would save him from been be reminded of everything he has lost. "You will be going through some training with me." he tells Xion coldly, though it's a struggle not to sneer at it.

Xion winches, she does not understand why, but of all the members, Saix seems to hate her in the manner he speaks to her. She is afraid to look into his yellow eyes, did it once and that was more than enough. Those eyes were cold, but past it was something that truly scared her.

"Meet me down in Hall of Empty Melodies when you're ready." Saix tells it and leaves, merely wanting this over with.

Preparing herself, both mentally and in stock for this training session, has the feeling Saix will beat her way harder than any Heartless ever have done. Xion reluctantly heads to the area, finding Saix is waiting for her. She is scared about how this will turn out. Xion always feels like she is approaching something dangerous every time she gets a mission from Saix and shudders to think that she might see what has made her wary of him since the beginning.

The moment she is close enough, the looming man speaks. "The Organization needs you at full strength, I will test your skills and afterward train you to an acceptable level." He summons his weapon, Xion does the same but is unsure what to do.

Annoyed that it hesitates, "Well?" Saix asks it impatiently; the puppet winches, though gets the hint and attacks. He easily blocks the keyblade and the next after this. Saix is not impressed and shows by catching the puppet by the hood during a sloppy attack and throws it to the other side of the floor. "A Dusk fights better than you." He tells it harshly, Xion flinches, but again, he does not give a darn. "This might work on a lesser Heartless, but this sloppiness won't take down those we want you to slay." And commands it, "Strike me again," adding a warning, "and you better get a hit in, for I will not be this merciful the next time."

Xion winches of the clear warning, she picks up her keyblade and charges at Saix, desperately trying to hit him, but all of her strikes gets blocked by his claymore. She forgot to stuck up on magic attacks, focused more on healing, and perhaps that was a wise choice, for after the third block, Saix turns his weapon and strikes her hard over the arm, breaking it on impact. Xion screams in pain, leaps away and heals it with a cura spell.

Barely healed and she got struck again by Saix, this time the hit threw her into the nearest wall. She fell to the ground, air completely knocked out from her, and her stomach hurts from that strike.

"Pathetic." Saix speaks, "It's no surprise the collection of hearts has been so low since you got on the duty." he does not care if it's only a month old, that's no excuse in his mind. Xion tries to get up but is unable, another sign of weakness. "I can see I got my work cut out." He walks over, forces it up and when it has healed itself, he attacks again. Xion, this time goes on the defensive, so it's not completely stupid. He beats it down three more times, each time allowing Xion to heal up.

The fourth time Xion tries to get up without healing, observing this. "Run out of magic and potions?" It does not answer, but there's no need; the fake desperation indicates enough. For a moment, he sees a younger vision of himself where the teal eyes stare at him in fear yet defiance. This takes him off guard but Saix refuses to let it show. It enrages him that this poppet dares to remind him of who he once was and should consider itself lucky that Xemnas wants it alive.

Saix dismisses his weapon and leaves, "We'll resume training tomorrow, don't be late."

Xion struggles to stand, only allowing her legs to collapse under her the moment Saix is out of sight. The pain from the injuries she got from Saix and whatever is going through her chest almost makes her choke. She does not look forward to the next session but is very aware she does not have a choice.

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The next week, Xion is getting beaten and insulted by Saix, she is trying so hard to get better, prove to the man that she is not useless as he so often told her. But no matter much, she just cannot get a hit in and always ends up beaten, and the pain inside her chest strengthens. Another strike and she lies on the floor.

Saix sneers. "You're not worth keeping, might as well dust you here and now. Save us all the trouble."

For some reason, that made it flood over, the pain got too much and Xion… well, she does not fully recall what she did, only that she got up and attacked Saix. When she calmed down enough, she is standing before him, her keyblade is deeply embedded into his chest, blood and darkness leaking out. Xion stares in horror at the wound, then up to Saix, it's the first time she sees something other than a cold stone face or the sneer, this time he looks genuinely surprised.

Saix stares down to the blade still stuck inside his chest, barely moving.

Something hits Xion hard along with the thought: '_The others are going to dust me for this.'_ Which made her swiftly remove the blade. Saix collapses onto the floor, but she did not check if he was alright, this new thing raging in her mind made her turn tail and flee from the castle, into the dark city below.

He had expected Xion to get angry, but not to suddenly be able to make a Blitz attack and hit him right in the chest. The wound is bad, and yet he did not heal himself right away, his mind is too startled of what face suddenly met him from the puppet, something that threw him back to the more innocent days. Fortunately for him, Saix snaps out from his shocked stupor before he couldn't keep his body together and cast a healing spell over himself. The large wound healed, only the torn cloak and the mix of blood and darkness shows any signs of what just had happened.

Saix struggles onto his feet, he knows he should feel enraged by how Xion almost killed him, but his mind is too much in a mess to really pretend the anger, way busier trying to wrap his head around in who he just saw.

Could it really have been her?

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T_hey had once again snuck into the castle, almost got caught by one of the guards but he and Lea managed to slip away just the right moment. _

_ They hurry deeper inside, checking any room for something special. They found something inside a room, a girl, hiding in the shadows. She had middle long raven hair, making those light-blue eyes stand out a lot. She was dressed in all black and didn't seem much older than him and Lea. _

_ He walked over to this girl, "Hey, are you alright?" he asked, having the sense she wasn't. The girl didn't answer, merely staring at him with those bright blue eyes. He reached a hand out to her. "It's alright, I'm Isa and this is Lea." His friend gave her a wave as a greeting, turning back to her. "What's your name?" She didn't answer; instead, she reached a hand out to him. _

_ "You two again?!" One of the guards yelled, this time it was the one with the torn red scarf, and before either, he or Lea could do anything. The man caught them, asking them with an annoyed grin, "Now, how many times have we thrown you out by now?" _

_ "Well, I think this is the fourth time." Lea cheekily said and he, cast a glance at where the girl was, but she's gone and not wanting to reveal her location for this obnoxious guard. He added to his friend's remark. "Of the ten times we have snuck inside the castle. You're getting sloppy" The guard wasn't amused by either of their cheek and dragged them outside. He spotted the girl at the door, watching him with those unique sky-blue eyes._

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**I will try and put as many abilities from the games into the story, like how the keyblade changes form by introducing a particular token to it, making it into a keychain. So all those keyblades Roxas could get in the game? Yeah, it's merely him getting new keychains to his keyblade. **

**Funny, it's Xigbar that taught him that trick. :3**

** Oh, and the whole lore about Xion has utterly been changed, I wanted her to get a bigger part of the whole series and this sure is going to get her that. You will see what I mean in later chapters. **


	2. A blast of the past

**I was planning on writing the tutorial missions, but they turned into a copy and paste of the game vision, so I scrapped it and instead focused on other parts of the story. I am taking certain plots out from KH3, but this whole thing won't follow the cannon, so I do not feel it's important to make spoiler warnings.**

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Saix lies in bed, his mind wandering on that first meeting, and to see that face again on the replica's face. It made him wonder. _'Could it really have been her? Or was it just another trick?' _He can't really say, maybe he should ask Axel, hear what he sees in Xion… oh, he forgot that Axel is no more. The yellow orbs land on the night sky from the window, void of stars. He suddenly feels incredibly cold from the thought that struck him. Axel is gone, the last remaining thing of Lea has faded away. He is all alone now.

'Y_ou do not need him.' _A whisper inside his head, but Saix cannot bring himself to agree with his inner voice. He pushes the thoughts aside that he has no emotions, for the coldness every Nobody feels has become greater as if he's standing outside in the snow, and this time there no fire to warm him.

'_He'd served his purpose, you have come closer to the goal.'_

But was that goal truly worth it? More important than his best friend? Saix finds no answer worth that question, only the agreement that nothing is worth it. '_He's never coming back...' _

Never will he see that cocky grin, eyes beaming as if the sun is shining into them, listening to whatever comes to Axel's mind and he would've retorted back with a sarcastic but goodhearted remark… well, lately, his comments have not been goodhearted. In fact, Saix realizes that he has been quite the asshole towards his friend.

'_Now it's too late.' _

He cannot feel regret, but… of all the times he wishes to feel anything about this loss, it would be now. He wants to feel something other than these phantom emotions, want to get sad, angry even—he wants to go into his Berserk stage and tear down this whole darn castle and show how much he misses that obnoxious man to Axel.

A sound he hasn't noticed before comes into focus, takes him a moment to fully register and when it does. Saix turns to the wailing alarm clock and he is struck with a very vivid memory on how to feel panic. "Shit!" He swears and leaps out from bed and continues his swearing as he dresses up.

He has been in such deep thoughts that he hasn't heard the clock, and not by ten or twenty minutes, but several hours! He has never done that before! Why the in Kingdom Hearts light did he do it now?! No, no time to think about that now. Saix quickly grabs the papers, not even bothering to look at them and merely hands out what lies above the pile to the other members.

Fortunately, the others didn't seem to notice his huge blunder and if they did, no one mentioned it. Saix prefers this incident will be forgotten as soon as possible. With Luxord gone through a portal, Saix notices that he is still holding one mission sheet. Okay, is Demyx trying to avoid missions again? He scans the room but does not find a lazy musician. Should he check the man's room?

Saix finds himself that he honestly does not care about that idiot.

Saix leaves the room, and with nothing better to do, he begins sorting through the sheets for future missions.

Saix stops when he gets to Xion's upcoming mission and is reminded of what happened last night. '_Right, still has to deal with Xion.' _

She should consider herself lucky if he does not— wait, why is he suddenly considering Xion a she now? Is it because of the face?

_'Better haul it back, it's not like hearts are collecting themselves.' _He hums but first; coffee. Now that he is over the fake panic attack, Saix is pretty sure he has been wrecking his brain all night, but honestly, he cannot tell since there's no night and day cycle in this world.

Saix brews some coffee and makes some toast, slowly consuming both as his mind is once again wandering. It has finally sunk in that Axel might be dead and will never come back.

'_and whose fault is this?' _Saix pushes that thought aside, reminding himself that there is nothing to do about it now. All he can do is keep moving forward.

All on his own.

Saix hurls the half-empty cup right into the nearby wall, breaking it to a million pieces, not enough; he feels like breaking the whole wall in how angry and lost he feels. The same emotions that went through Isa the day where he and Lea lost their hearts to the Heartless that guy sent at them. He was so useless, and lately, he has been such a jerk to him.

How could he treat his best friend like that?

What the hell is wrong with him?

Why did he send Lea there?

Didn't he think this might've spelled the end for him?

Why doesn't he care?!

A pain at his right hand clears up the mess of thoughts, Saix blinks, staring at the wall and the hole his fist made. Slowly he removes his hand and testing it with the other one, yup, he just broke pretty much every bone with that stunt.

"It's not me losing control like this…" He muses, never has he lost control over himself when not going into a Berserk stage, but his body is uncomfortably cold. It's making his mind repeat how to feel certain emotions, making it feels like his chest is burning of the thoughts that his actions have caused the demise of his best friend. Saix really has to struggle with not punching the wall again. He wants to hit it; does not matter if it will break what remains of his bones in it. He wants to feel the pain— he needs to feel any sort of pain that can represent what he should be feeling. '_What the hell is wrong with me?' _

Saix leaves the room, letting the Dusks handle the cleaning and repairs. As he walks, his thoughts try to sort out what changed all of this? Well, it started when he started being such an asshole to Axel, not being the friend he was supposed to, but another, darker side. whispers with a soft voice, '_Xion is at fault, make it pay.'_

What? No, Xion isn't at fault of what happened to Axel. all she did was hit him in the chest, sure she needs to be punished for that but not…

the whisper kept insisting that Xion is at fault of all of this, it keeps pushing and pushing, and finally: He listens to the voice.

"Find Xion!" Saix commands the Dusks loudly and they all take off, for even they know it's a bad idea to argue with Saix when he's in this kind of mood.

One of his Berserker Dusks return and report the whereabouts of Xion, Saix heads straight down to the streets of the city below the castle. Near the Memory Skyscraper, he finds a small figure sitting at the stairs in a manner very much like a child that knows they have done something wrong.

This makes him pause. '_Does a puppet even know how to emote such emot— it does not matter! Strike it down, give in to your fury, take its life!' _

Wait that does not sound like him. The other members might not believe this, but he isn't a temperamental person. He shouldn't hurt people just because they struck him from his cruel taunting.

'_The puppet is at fault, embrace your rage.' _

Saix slowly turns back to Xion and summons his weapon.

Sensing someone is near, Xion looks up and fear strikes her in seeing Saix standing nearby, holding the claymore in a manner that he is planning on using it against her. That's not what really scares her, it's the face, it's twisted in rage. Xion jumps on her feet and summons her keyblade, terrified but not willing to let Saix beat her without a fight.

This actually catches Saix off guard,

_'Strike it! let it know fear.' _The voice commands, but… Xion already fears him. She genuinely fears him for that small body is trembling and even though he cannot see the face thanks to the hood, only one knowing how much in danger they are will be desperately searching for an escape.

_'I wonder if I looked like that when the Heartless attacked?' _Saix can't help but wonder and dismisses his weapon. He hesitantly approaches the girl. She tenses up and if he does not eases her down, then he can look forward to getting hit with that keyblade again. "I'm not going to hurt you." Xion seems surprised, but it's hard to know with the hood up. Honestly, he's also a bit surprised by this. He's acting like Isa.

But that's a good thing, right?

"You won't?" She asks, sounding confused. "But… I really hurt you."

Saix does not answer right away, he a bit caught off guard by the voice. It's not the voice he's used to hear from the puppet, but… her voice.

Can it really be…. he reaches out and carefully pulls down the hood. Instead of a doll's or even his younger, human self's face, he sees the same teenager girl from before— from all those years ago. She has the same face, same raven black hair and those iconic sky-blue eyes. Eyes currently wide in fear but also confusion. Saix stares at this face, getting flashbacks of the times Isa and Lea snuck into the castle to play with her. He remembers that girl had an ability to summon very colorful animals, it was weird, but Saix (fondly) remember he and Lea would hurl some of these animals at the guards before running off with their female friend to a guard-less area inside the castle.

But one day, she was just… gone. Never found a trace of where she went, and now she is here? No, it can't be her. Xion is a puppet!

But what if this is her? What if Zexion used one of his powerful illusion spells and made Xion look like someone else? Would explain why he kept seeing his younger self in her.

"…I know you." He speaks quietly.

Very confused by this change of behavior someone who has been nothing but mean to her as long as she can remember. Now, merely by the action of removing the hood from her face, is claiming he knows her. "You do?" Xion asks, confused but also curious about how Saix knows her. She flinches in fright when Saix puts a hand onto her head, fearing for a moment he's going to strike her, but he doesn't. The hand's weight gives a soothing sense she has never felt before and meeting his eyes, Xion blinks in seeing they are no longer the usual cold yellow but instead, a gentle gleam in the now teal eyes. She stares in awe into those eyes, for the first time, Xion does not fear Saix.

He opens his mouth to explain but realizes that he has to wait for now. Neoshadow Heartless are approaching in the sense of Xion's keyblade. "Let's go back." He tells her and gently but firmly pushes her towards the castle.

Xion obeys and as they walk up some stairs of the castle, she asks carefully. "Do you know me from before?"

"To be honest, I am not sure." Saix must admit, Xion looks and gives the sense that he knows her, but maybe that's just a side effect of Vexen's replica program. Honestly, he cannot recall how the girl he and Lea played with inside the castle really looked like other than the raven hair and sky-blue eyes. And she always would mysteriously disappear with no explanation. He and Lea always went out searching, but it mostly ended up they got caught and then thrown out by whatever guard who happens to find them. But looking at Xion, he gets the strong sense that this is how that girl looked like. So maybe, "Back when I was human, I and… a friend of mine befriended a girl. One day she just disappeared, and no matter how much we searched, I haven't seen her since…" he meets Xion's sky-blue eyes, "until now."

"I'm… I'm this girl?" Xion asks, a bit confused as to why Saix hasn't reacted to her like this before now.

"As said, I cannot say for sure," Saix tells Xion, he turns to leave but cannot bring himself to leave her behind like this. So he waits for her to catch up to him again. "your face… wasn't like this the other times I looked at you." Xion titles her head in confusion, but he does not feel up to explaining that he has seen either a doll or Isa's face when looking at her. Whatever made the change, he welcomes it, although it is making it a bit hard to know if she really is that girl or merely playing him for a fool.

'_I have been a fool a lot lately, so what difference does this make?'_

"It does not matter," He tells Xion, wants to continue treating her as a mere puppet but finds it hard with that innocent stare holding his eyes. Saix sights, already regretting of have gone after her. "I will overlook your lash out and absences if you promise to work extra hard from now on."

Relief washes over her, Xion dreaded Saix would punish her severely for her screw-up and doing extra work is a simple slap on the wrist, "I will!" and happily runs off to gather extra many hearts, wanting to prove that Saix won't regret this act of kindness.

Saix watches Xion run off and finds himself wondering: "Are you really part of Sora's memories?" He knows how Kairi looks like and although Xion shares some similarities he can easily say that those two girls are not the same— pain strikes his right hand when Saix tries to cross his arms, reminding him of his outburst from earlier. '_Right, better fix up my hand.' _Hopefully the Moogle has something that can mend shattered bones. Writing reports with the left-hand sounds like a giant hassle he rather not deal with.

G_oodnight, Sora._

_ Sora? That's not my name… my name is…_

Roxas opens his eyes, head thumping and foggy, so it takes him several moments to realizes that his bed has several seashells lying around, this confuses him a bit, who would be leaving seashells for him?

His wondering gets interrupted by a loud growl from his stomach and Roxas realizes how hungry he is. Wobbly on his feet, Roxas heads to the kitchen.

He finds Saix sitting at the table, staring into a mug so intensely that it almost seems like the coffee insulted him. Roxas hesitates for a moment, wondering if he should ask the man about Castle Oblivion but decides otherwise. Saix is most likely not going to give up any answers and always makes Roxas feel small and irritated. He leaves the man alone and makes himself a bowl of cereal.

"You're awake." Saix suddenly states.

Roxas's whole body tense up, but fortunately, the second-in-command does not notice. Well now that Saix has his focus on him; "Did you ever find out what happened at Castle Oblivion?" Roxas asks, the whole ordeal has left him uneasy and he would like to know what has happened instead pondering about it with this headache he's dealing with.

Saix watches the kid for a moment, he seems greatly affected by the news, must mean the boy is starting to remember how it was like to have emotions. Seeing Roxas like this, Saix finds himself thinking about the times he worried about his sickly mother and does wonder if Sora felt the same when he lost his friends.

'_… When have I taken others 'feeling' into my account?' _Saix realizes he has let his mind wander. A dangerous thing around here. "We're still looking into the matter," He answers Roxas and not sure why but adds as he checks his now cold coffee, "it is sketchy, but the Dusks have reported there might be a survivor." and he prays it will be Axel.

Roxas blinks, caught off guard by the tone Saix used, it's not the usual cold and uncaring voice. Still emotionless and calm, but the tone was in a way that made Roxas think that Saix did care about the subject. Rather strange but it did ease Roxas feelings, "Okay," and quietly eats the rest of the cereal. When done, he does asks Saix. "Will there be missions for me today?"

"No."

Roxas nods and after having cleaned up the bowl, he leaves the kitchen, does cast one glance at Saix, the man looks like he hasn't gotten any sleep. He wonders if Saix has spent most of the time trying to figure out what has happened in Castle Oblivion? With no mission, Roxas decides to head to the clock tower, his head still fuzzy from have just woken up and that strange dream still haunts his mind. Not to mention his thoughts on never going to see Axel again are deeply bothering him.

"Roxas?" Xion asks and is pleasured surprised to see him up. "You woke up today!" Roxas does not fully respond, seems like he hasn't fully woken up, but at least he's up. "You were out for quite a while, I asked Saix when you would wake, but he didn't know."

"How… how long was I out?"

Xion takes a seat beside him, she does have to count the days to answer his questions. "For about three weeks."

"That long?!" Roxas exclaims startled, no wonder why his head and body is so sluggish.

Xion nods, "The Dusks were taking care of you." and they did but… well, they had a habit of messing with Roxas. She asked Saix about it and although he seemed a bit annoyed of her asking, he did explain that it was their only way of showing who they once were.

"T_hat's so sad." _She had replied and Saix had merely given her a strange look she didn't know what meant, and before she could ask, he had left.

"Really? Doesn't feels like it was a Dusk leaving seashells…" Roxas muses, he does not take them having a sympatric side.

Oh, she was going to ask him about it, good timing, "Oh, that was me." Xion giggles, "I thought you would like to have something pretty to wake up to." and since she didn't know he would wake, Xion pulls up another seashell from her pocket. "Here, take this one!" Roxas takes and she explains, "I was sent to a world that has a beautiful ocean during one of my missions. I have been picking a few seashells up every time I finished a mission." and requests Roxas with the seashell he holds. "Try putting it to your ear," He does and after a moment of letting him listen to the sound inside this seashell, she asks, "could you hear it? The sound of the waves?"

Listening to the sound coming from the seashell, he did see strange images before his eyes. Many of them are about the ocean, some of them with two people smiling at him. The girl in those images looks strangely very alike to Xion. Blinking and the pictures disappear, as well as the sound of waves from the seashell, now it just sounds like: "Sounds like stagnate air." He remarks, too busy to wonder why he saw those images to hear Xion huffy exclaim that the seashell makes the sound of the ocean. He pondered about it even as he returned back to his room, but as his mind cleared up, the numbness returned as his thoughts of Axel being gone snuck back into his mind.

* * *

**Saix is going to be a lot more important character in this story, and I sure hope you guys are going to like the dynamic he will get with Xion.**

**Xion's personality might change a bit, but mostly my attempt to give her character. **

**Roxas is still quite down from the whole Castle Oblivion incident, and it's not making it better that he sees strange images in his head.**


	3. Fire's warmth

**Roxas will have gone through several missions by now, but none had any change so I skipped them all for the sake of the flow of the story. **

** In this lore I have going, Isa and Lea never became apprentices' for Ansem the Wise, instead, they invaded the castle to play with their female friend. Due to some certain events in the past, Isa never held any loyalty towards Xehanort/Xemnas and been quite the troublemaker along with Lea at the start of their Nobody lives. That did come to a sudden end for apparent reasons. **

* * *

"How is Xion's progress?"

Saix is a bit surprised that it's first now he has noticed how ridiculously emotionless and yet overdramatic Xemnas' voice is. It's like the man is trying too hard to show— ugh, again with the needless thoughts, the hell is wrong with him lately? "Number XIV is still uncoordinated but has improved enough that she can take on bigger Heartless." Saix reports, musing to himself that it will be sort of strange that he no longer will have these training sessions with Xion. She is still skittish but after their talk at the skyscraper, she has warmed up and started to ask him all sorts of questions. It was annoying at first, but now… Saix thinks he's starting to like it. As much as a Nobody can anyways.

Saix knows he shouldn't have these thoughts. Trying to convince himself that she is just a replica who happens to look like that girl, but he finds it incredibly hard to resist those wide, glowing orbs that are her eyes. Every time she looks at him and that glow is not there, Saix finds himself strangely compelled to do anything so it will return. It irritates him, but he cannot deny that seeing her happy makes him think of better times.

"Good, the training can now end." Xemnas replies in his slow, dull yet in some manners exaggerating voice. "You can send Xion out after bigger Heartless, as well as Roxas."

"Understood." Saix replies and leaves the second he is allowed, staying around Xemnas is not something he wants, and even without emotions, his head does a pretty good job in making him feel unnerved by the man. _'Still, I need to keep up the act. More so now I don't have Axel around.' _The thought of not having his oldest friend around anymore still leaves the feeling of being cold, but there's nothing he can do about it. Even without emotions, he still remembers how it feels to be lonely. Something he experienced a lot as a child, at least until Lea threw himself into his life, and stuck to him ever since... now he's gone thanks to one of Saix's plans.

'_Is all of this truly worth it?" _

Saix has to push that thought aside, he cannot think like that, if he does then he will become defiant and last time he went against Xemnas, he got that horrible scar across his face.

he needs to stick to his job, needs to obey Xemnas, be patient for Kingdom Hearts to be made.

'I d_oubt he will return our hearts— of course, he will. Only following the superior can the goal be reached.' _

Saix fists his hands, he can feel a Berserk mode is coming up, it's happening a lot lately. It's like there is a battle going on inside of him, it's making him unstable and it's not helping that he can barely sleep. He's starting to have these horrible dreams, of vines made of darkness that is dragging him down into a cold, suffocating abyss. A shadowy person whispering he can only count on himself and Xion is not worth his time.

But if Xion truly is that girl, then... she is worth his time. She's the only reminder of happier times...

Saix finds himself walking into Axel's room and practically collapses onto the bed, he knows it's stupid, but he needs his closet friend, only if it's merely the shadow of him. He shouldn't be able to feel, but that does not stop his memories make him remember this terrible loneliness.

Is everything he has been doing these years really been worth these sacrifices? The bandaged hand brushes over the bed, a faint scent of smoke and sea-salt ice cream are still there, but soon, only his memories of Axel will remain.

"_Inside people's memories, I can live forever." _

"Even if I wanted to… I can never forget your obnoxious face." Saix muses and even with this dark voice whispers loudly into his ear that he does not need Lea, the Isa side of him knows better. Without the sun, the moon cannot shine, Lea was like the brother Isa always wanted. One who would drive him up the wall, give plenty of headaches with those stupid ideas. Be there when needed a shoulder to cry on, an ally who would never falter. Lea would be there for him in a heartbeat.

_'And you threw him_ away.'

The yellow in his eyes fading and allows the teal to return once again as the Nobody agreed on the worlds of what remained of that teenager boy.

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A touch on Saix's shoulders, his eyes snaps wide open and in sheer instinct, he punches the one who tried to get the jump on him. Did forget that his right hand is still healing so it left him with a really nasty thumping. The pain did clear up his mind enough for Saix to check on who dared to sneak up on him. He stares in shock of who is lying on the floor, stroking a hand over the jaw from the punch.

'_Lea, you're alive.'_

No word leaves his lips though, he can't for the darker voice shouts into his ear: '_You do not need him! He is holding you back!' _

First; it was quite the surprise to find bitchy Saix taking a nap in his bed, and second; darn, he forgot about the rule: never startle a sleeping Isa! Checking his sour jaw from that punch, Axel eyes the wide-eye staring Saix, he seems startled which is new. "What?" Axel asks him cheekily, one of the few emotions he remembers to emote. "Did you really expect I would've gone down that easily—" his words are cut short when a pillow is thrown right at his face, taking him greatly off guard for that's a move only Isa would've done.

"The hell is wrong with you? Come waltzing back when I thought you had died!" Saix snaps angrily at Axel. 'not being able to feel' be dammed, he can very well remember how to be pissed at this moron. Axel stares at him with a startled wide-eyed look, ignoring the surprise from the red-haired, Saix gets up and whacks Axel over the head, hard. "Asshole!" and again forgot about the hand, there's only so much a hi-potion can heal.

"Ow! Hey, what about you give me a— hey, what's up with the hand?" Axel interrupts his own angry retort at been yelled at after everything he's been doing these past weeks. Noticing that Saix had flinched and the right hands cramped up for a moment.

Saix looks away, "A simple injury."

That simple move gave Axel strong flashbacks to back when they were kids. Isa always brushed off injuries that way, even when they were serious. And by the looks of it, this is one of the serious ones. Axel gets up. "Let me see,"

"I'm fine." Saix snaps back.

Axel replies with a glare and; "Just let me look at your hand, idiot." Saix reluctantly did, removing the glove, Axel finds the hand bandaged and underneath it are large bruises but that's not the issue. "It's broken," He notes and by the feels of it, this injury has been a lot worse. "what the hell did you do?"

Saix does not answer for a while and when he does, he is firmly avoiding eye contact and speaking in a low voice, as if hoping Axel wouldn't catch it. "A wall provoked me…"

Axel stares at him for a moment, then, without really meaning, he starts laughing. Not at the whole punching wall thing, but that he, after so many years of receiving that cold professionalism, treated like a mere grunt, finally sees his old friend in Saix. "Must've been quite the insult." He remarks, still chuckling.

"The worst." Saix replies, still avoiding eye contact. Why is he embarrassed? He shouldn't be able to feel such a thing, neither the joy of knowing Lea is alive. But he wants to feel it, even if it's only pretending.

No, he is a Nobody, a shell of one former self.

"Isa?" Axel asks, noting that Saix looks to be having a mental argument. Saix eyes him, that cold, indifferent stare is back.

"Why didn't you report in?" Saix asks and removes his hand from Axel, ignoring the hurt look in his friend's eyes. It only pretends after all. "The only thing I heard that most of our members have been eliminated and Naminé has gone missing."

Axel sighs, but have seen his friend, even if it was just a moment, it is enough to know that Isa is still in there. Just… messed up for some crappy reason. "There one minute, gone the next. I don't know how she got out." Axel lies, he knows Naminé went with Riku, both now working together in restoring Sora from the memory scattering Marluxia made her do. But he does not feel like telling Saix that, knowing he will get a cold lecture instead of the exasperated yelling Isa would've done. Axel much rather wants that instead of having to deal with bitchy Saix here.

"And how many rooms did you search before the guardian arrived?"

Well… that's where the weirdest part happened. Axel has heard about that thing from the senior staff and even fought it once. He knows its strength, hell watched through the orb the Guardian team up with Sora and help tear Larxene apart. But after the battle subsided and everyone either dead or gone, Axel had been positive the beast would've gone after him, and it did. But the creature… didn't attack. It started to follow him around, only getting agitated if he broke its personal space. But now that Saix is back to his asshole ways, Axel does not feel like revealing this strange discovery. "What do you think took me this long? Darn thing refused to get off my back." Again lies, the creature proved to be some much-needed company. The only reason he took this long was due he needed to sort certain things out he has been thinking about lately. One of them is about Saix, they haven't been talking to one another as friends for years, and when they do talk, it's always in a manner of superior and grunt.

Axel is getting sick of this treatment, more so when Roxas is reminding him in how a friendship should truly be. "Anyway, I gotta hand it to you, about Marluxia being one of the traitors. You knew exactly who to send in the start." And he will never say it out loud, but if not for Sora, then Axel does not think he would've been able to get rid of Marluxia. Did prove why he got the title as the master of Castle Oblivion, for that guy was much stronger than expected.

the dark voice stronger than ever, "I only sent those who were getting in the way." Saix replies coldly, eyeing Axel as the man remarks: "You really are set onto this plan of yours." And the red-haired asks with a faint grin. "Was I included too? Among those getting in your way?" Saix finds himself having flashbacks in watching Lea being taken by the Heartless, the cold he felt when thought Axel was gone.

"Hey, that's the wrong time giving me the silent treatment!" Axel exclaims in not getting an answer from Saix.

'Y_ou do not need him.'_ the dark voice whispers, but the mere thought of re-experience that cold again, it's enough. "Axel," He puts the left hand onto his scarred forehead from the headache coming up, Saix meets Axel's slightly wide eyes in surprise that he has completely dropped the cold attitude and replaced it with a fearful tone. Saix is afraid, of what is going on with him. "Something's wrong with me..." Axel stares at him for a moment, a very painful moment. The voice is so loud so if Axel does not take his reached out hand… Saix does not think he can fight whatever the cause of that voice for much longer...

Yeah, something has been wrong with Saix for a long time, but hearing from his mouth that he realizes that too. It's enough. Axel steps over to his friend, putting a hand onto his shoulders, only there he realizes that Saix is trembling. He smiles weakly to his friend, sort of glad that Isa is shining through this cold man he has dealt with for several years by now. "Tell me what's makes you think that. Can't help if I don't know what's going on." He smiles to his friend.

Saix seems to relax immensely and that is a giant improvement for Axel, making him the more determined to help his friend returning back to normal.

* * *

** I'm sorry if the thoughts of Saix are a bit weird but it's the best way I can make the mental arguments he has with himself. At least he realized that something is really F'ed up in his head. **

**and a good thing Axel is there to help him overcome it.**


	4. Picked up where it fell

Axel did not get much sleep during that night or the day either. Saix has been kind enough to give him a one day vacation and he sure hell needed it. Not only from having been ruining his boots from all that walking in Castle Oblivion but also from what his friend told him last night.

_"—it's trying to keep me down with black vines, tightening their grip in a moment of weakness. A person of darkness— I can hear his voice even when I'm awake. He is telling me things, that I cannot feel— you do not truly care about me. I try to fight but it's so hard… the more I fight, the angrier I get— a wall provoked me for peach sake...!"_

Axel had been chuckling at that, but only in an attempt to ease the tension Saix clearly felt in what crap he is dealing with, not sure it worked though, only one thing for sure.

_"You will get through this Isa, you're the most stubborn bastard I have ever known. And if you fall, then I will be right there to pick you back up." _

And Axel sure hell is going to keep that promise if it will lead getting his best friend back, then he can endure Saix's cold sarcasm and asshole treatment.

Sensing he's not getting any sleep, Axel gets up and after have gotten dressed, he heads straight to his friend's room. He finds the man sitting before the computer, writing down yesterday's reports. "Ah I really needed that nap." Axel lies, but this time he did it to cast off the fog of tension Saix has around himself. He fakes a yawn and stretches out. Saix looks up from the screen, and Axel feels sorry for his friend at the exhausted look Saix has. "Looks like you could need some Z's too."

"Wouldn't that be nice..." Saix muses wishful but sadly, he is not that lucky, "Unfortunately, Xemnas wants these reports tonight and I am behind as it is." letting out a sigh, remembering how to feel frustrated is quite easy. "Not only are the nightmares keeping me awake but Roxas hasn't returned from his mission as of yet…" He sighs loudly, "The universe must really hate me." Saix grumbles.

And here he had hoped Saix would've been up to get some ice cream like old-time sake, seems like that's out of the question. Axel leans over Saix's shoulders, pretending he didn't hear the irritated command to get off, mostly because that's the shadow man in his brain speaking. Isa would not really mind, as he secretly did like the human contact, but too proud to ever admit it.

Checking the current report Saix is writing, Axel gets an idea of what the job is. Checking further, he can see the report Saix is working belongs to Xaldin's, and by the looks of it, the world that guy got sent to would needed future recon missions. Axel is not much for such tedious work, but, well what kind of friend would he be if not helping out when someone needs him? "Tell you what, I'll handle this and you will get some Z's" Axel suggests.

"I am certain the superior wouldn't be able to know the difference between our writing style." Saix replies sarcastically, but apparently, Axel is not taking a no for an answer. The red-haired man shoves him off the chair and practically drags Saix over to the bed with a cheerful: "I know, all my ideas are brilliant."

Saix actually chuckles at this. "Says the guy who sat a Detonator on fire."

"Yeah, yeah, now start counting sheep," Axel tells Saix and puts him onto the bed before going over to do the report writing. From the bed, he can hear Saix groan annoyed and without looking at him, points at the direction. "Don't tempt me to set your ass on fire as well."

_'Do that and I will tear you to pieces.'_ Saix almost speaks those words but succeeds to bite them down, those aren't his words, he does not want to hurt his best friend. Not when Axel is going out of his way to help him. Saix lies down, and with closed eyes, listens to Axel's typing. It's strangely relaxing.

Can it be because he's not the one doing the work for a chance?

"Been forever I last could slack off like this." He remarks at this observation.

"I might be persuaded to help out more often if you hang out with me after work." Axel replies, for honestly, he has been missing hanging out with his old friend. Strange since they don't have any hearts, but even a Nobody can get bored.

"Compelling argument, Lea."

Axel halts the report writing that Saix had spoken his human name after so many years calling him Axel, even in private. Though only for a short moment and he's right back to work. Finishing up Xigbar's report, Axel picks up the next and has to take a moment in understanding what these scribbles are saying and when he does, Axel groans in how little there is in this report.

Saix got a strong idea of which report Axel has picked. "Let me guess; Demyx's report."

"I feel your pain if this is what you have to deal with daily." Axel voices, for Demyx literarily only wrote he went to the world, found the object he was tasked to find and then return back to base. Ugh, that is not helping Demyx… least when his mission was to figure out if there were more of the items. Now he can see why Saix almost killed Demyx with the claymore back when the guy was new, though Axel still considers it overkill but at least it did the job, he thinks… "How the hell do I have to make this without information?"

"Usually, I would have to interrogate Demyx for a better report, but I don't feel like throwing him out from the nearest window." Saix replies, the last part is meant sarcastically, but the mental image of a cartoony Demyx falling does make him smile.

Not feeling up to that either, nor setting him on fire, Axel ponders for a moment about a quick resolution and suggests to Saix: "What if I embellish his report?"

This cocky suggestion not only gave him flashbacks of their childhood and what crazy stunts Lea's idea always caused but that Axel is in fact: "Are you saying you're going to write bullshit and expect Xemnas wouldn't notice?" Axel grins back to him, the dark voice laughs mockingly that Axel even thinks that would work and Saix would be better off writing these himself. While another side of him, one that has been forced down since he got the scar said cheekily: _'Like the guy will know the difference.'_

Why does he have this urge to be defiant against someone who can easily turn one into a Dusk?

He knows Xemnas is much stronger than him and yet, a part of him has this urge to be cheeky— no he shouldn't do that. "Don't be a fool." He tells Axel, unable to look at him, he can't for some reason, he feels like having lost control over his body in this very moment.

"Can always put the blame on Demyx if caught." Axel laughs and begins to write, not sure what he would find the most amusing, that Xemnas would punish Demyx for this or the boss man would actually fall for it. He so wants the latter to happen, which will make this the best prank ever. Saix does not try and stop him, checking on him, Axel can see he got a distance look and his body is trembling.

'I_s he fighting against the darkness guy?'_ Axel wonders and does hope the Isa side of Saix is winning. He leaves the computer for a moment, carefully puts a hand on his friend's shoulder. It snaps Saix out from it, gold and green meet and without a word. Axel makes his friend lie down before he returns back to work.

It takes about two hours to finish up, Axel is about to declare loudly that he is finally done with this crap but stops himself in last second, realizing that Saix has fallen asleep. Axel sighs softly at the sight, thinking; _'Worth the pain.' _

More so when Saix really needed the rest. Axel gets up and leaves the room quietly, "See you tomorrow, Isa."

Axel heads to Twilight Town and finds Roxas at the clock tower, finishing up his ice cream.

Noticing Axel, Roxas greets him and remarks, "Didn't think you would've shown up today." the red-haired takes a seat, opening the package of his own ice cream.

"Yeah, been busy getting some Z's."

Roxas blinks, then laughs at what Axel has been doing all day. "You have been sleeping?"

"Never can enough sleep." Axel grins, not feeling like Roxas needs to know he has been helping out another good friend of his. His smile drops ever so slightly in a small observation he did on the teen. Roxas smiles a lot more before he went to Castle Oblivion. "You're a lot more cheerful than before." He points out, not that it's a bad thing.

Roxas eats the last of his ice cream, admitting something he has observed as well, "I was thinking the same about you." Axel has a certain shine in his eyes Roxas hasn't seen before, and he seems to have a constant smile on his lips.

Axel scratches his neck, "Yeah, guess I am." but does not explain why he's more cheerful but Roxas figures his friend is merely glad to be back from that long mission. Speaking of mission, Roxas glances to the door leading up to this tower, but it looks like Xion won't come today either…

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"Hey, Saix."

Saix turns around, allowing Axel to approach and speak whatever is on his mind: "You know where Xion is?" Now that Axel mentioned it, "No, she didn't return from her mission last night," Saix's gaze wanders to the large heart-shaped moon outside, "and her heart collection has plummet, which is unusual. Xion is dedicated to her work." not only through the dossier but also from how she at times comes to him. Telling him how her mission went with a shine in her eyes, like a child seeking approval from a role model. Saix must admit he is not entirely sure what to do; only that he gets a good sense when he tells her she did a good job and her whole face lights up at those simple words.

"Is that a soft spot I detect?" Axel teases his friend and is certain if they still had hearts, then Saix would've gotten a faint blush of embarrassment. Man always acted as if he didn't care but Axel knows his friend enough that it's not the case. Isa cares a lot about people, especially if he considers them part of his small friendship circle.

Ignoring the tease from Axel, he hands the red-haired his mission, "Try not and slack off, it sure hell will save me some trouble." Axel leaves not long after. Saix hands the others the paper and after have thrown Demyx out with the warning that unless he wants his fingers broken he better write a more detailed report. Saix stands at the window, quietly watching the everlasting night sky, he should return to his duties but… he sighs. _'Axel's right, I have a soft spot for her...'_

Saix teleports to the world he sent her to and begins searching the area for the young girl, he spots a lot of Heartless but no keyblade wielding girl. "Area should've been clean of Heartless." He muses and seeing a lot of them are around, not taken out by Xion. Saix has a feeling that either she is terribly hurt or has lost her weapon. It makes him wonder, can one lose such a powerful weapon as a keyblade? He finds a big Heartless, the target of Xion at the edge of this city area, before it camouflages itself, though he can see the outline of the Heartless when it passes a lonely tree. He follows it, the Heartless appears again and it turns against him. Saix summons his weapon in case this thing is planning on attacking, the Heartless eyes light up and two beams fires at him. Saix blocks those two beams with his weapon, "You asked for it." and strikes the thing, hitting it so hard with the claymore that it gets thrown into the lonely nearby tree. The Heartless camouflages itself again but from the sounds of it, fleeing from him. Running footsteps and Saix turns around.

Xion stops when she realizes who the person is and gets worried, "Saix?" though she does no longer feel endangered around him, the many training sessions have shown her that Saix is, in fact, a kind man when getting to know him. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Saix states out and scanning her palms, no keyblade in sight his thoughts about the losing the keyblade comes to mind. "lost the keyblade?" Xion looks exceptionally uncomfortable at the question and Saix is impressed in how much something that should be fake can display such genuine emotions. _'It's like she is feeling those emotions.'_ Which makes him wonder if Xion really is a replica, for how should a fake thing be able to feel? What if Xion is more real than he is? What if she really is that girl?

"Xion, where's your keyblade?" He demands but makes sure his voice is void of irritation as the dark voice wanted him to be. As hoped, it makes her open up.

"I… I can't use it…"

Wait, does she say she has lost the— the Heartless puts an end to those thoughts as it strikes him over the back. He can think about that later, right now this pest needs to be dealt with. "Can you fight?"

Xion lifts her hands, the right one has a blizzard spell ready. "Y-Yeah."

Good, she hasn't lost her spirit. "Prepare yourself," Saix tells her, and runs at the Heartless, Xion follows and while he hacks it with the claymore, she slows it down with her freezing spells. The Heartless wasn't much of a match and soon fades away. With that done, Saix turns back to Xion. "Explain how you're not able to use the keyblade."

Xion nods somewhat fearfully, though not at Saix's reaction. He has this air around that gives her the sense that he wants to help and she feels comforted by it. What does scares her; if the other members find out about this... "I don't know why, but…" she drops her head, "I can't summon it, no matter how much I try."

Worse than he expected and unfortunately not something he can fix. Saix nods slowly, notes himself to take this up with Axel. He is the one with the crazy ideas, Saix is more the type who makes those ideas passable. "Let's go," He kindly commands her and both return back to the portal leading back to the castle. Walking towards the area where the Organization members have their rooms, Xion stops and looks down at the dark city below. Saix stops as well and follows her gaze down to the Memory Skyscraper. It makes him think about the clock tower in Twilight Town and how he and Axel sat up there, talking as if they still had been humans. Feels like a lifetime ago he last did that… figures Axel has shown Roxas that spot, and later Xion. "You should join your friends," He tells Xion, from how Axel asked about her earlier, it's clear both him and Roxas has been worrying about her. "lean on them with your problems." Saix leaves her side, walking back to his room.

Axel has mentioned it more than once that they should hang out, but Saix dreads there is too much animosity between them from his past behavior. He doubts they ever can go back to how things were, Axel has always been a brilliant liar, so it most likely he is lying that he wants them to be friends again. That's at least what this faint whisper in his ear tells him.

Xion watches Saix leave, parts of her wants to stop him and tell he can join but… well, she's not sure how Roxas and Axel will react. Although hesitant, Xion decides to head to the clock tower and join her friends. Perhaps she follows Saix advice in sharing her problems with them.

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The door opens and the only one who can walk into his room without the Berserker Dusks taking notice is Axel. Saix, for once not working on reports, instead watching Kingdom Hearts from the window, wondering: is his heart up there? "I take Xion spoke with you." Saix speaks, not turning his yellow eyes away from the heart-shaped moon in the sky.

"Yup, and I take you encouraged Xion to do just that?"

Saix simply nods and turns away from the window, his full attention is on his friend. "What do you need?"

The tone is irritated, but Axel can see that Isa is showing in Saix and that's a good sign, for Axel really doesn't want to go behind his friend's back with this idea of his. "Can you team Roxas and Xion on missions?" He asks, adding, "At least until Xion can use her keyblade again."

_'Without the keyblade, Xion is of no use for the Organization, not worth the time.' _Saix hushes the sneering voice down, it's been quite loud lately but thanks to Axel's support, he has somewhat been able to ignore its dark words.

"You alright?"

"Headache," Saix replies and after having massaged his temples, "I can't do it for so long." He warns his friend, it will only be for so long he can make Xemnas think this is actually a good idea. "Roxas would have to collect twice as many hearts than he did before, sooner or later he won't be able to keep it up."

Axel is aware but before the kid works himself to exhausting, "Hopefully, Xion will remember how to call upon her own keyblade before that happens." Saix merely nods in agreement. Now with that said, "Oh, before I forget. I brought you something," Axel hands Saix the packed ice cream. "might ease up the headache." He grins.

Saix stares at it for a moment before the smile appears and the blue-haired man takes the gift. "How considerate of you." He unpacks and starts eating the treat.

Axel grins, "Consider it a gift from having found Xion." the smile fades but only slightly. "Xion took down her hood, and… well… is it just me or does she look like that girl we met inside the castle?" He asks for even though he cannot recall the face; it's really hard to forget those eyes. He remembers their friend's eyes were filled with dreams. Had the colors of the bright blue sky like it would have right after a strong rainstorm. "She certainly has the same eyes."

So he isn't the only one, Axel saw it too. "Quite strange indeed." Saix muses, he might not truly know what she is, only that he cannot ignore how she makes him feel. Replica or not, Xion is a real person to him.

He takes a bite of the ice cream. "Makes one wonder if she really is that girl."

Axel crosses his arms, for honestly, Xion isn't the only one who has a familiar face, "Maybe, but for some reason; Roxas looks like that boy we dragged into the castle, you know; Ven." And he has been wrecking his brain about this ever since he brought Roxas to the Organization. Why does the kid look like Ventus and not Sora?

"So I've noticed."

Noticing that Saix does not seems to care about this mystery, "You don't care?" Axel asks with a good idea on how to 'feel' confused. "Don't you find it weird?"

Saix shrugs, "It's like saying that we look like Lea and Isa, there's nothing special in a Nobody looking like another." Axel scratches his neck, musing something that sounds much like: "I guess so…" Finishing up the ice cream, Saix does a quick check on the stick before throwing it out. "Keep me updated on the two. There's something special about them."

"Glad to see you have taken notice." Axel grins and wonders in how Roxas and Xion will take it if he starts inviting Saix to the clock tower. He does hope the two kids wouldn't mind. It will be nice having a relaxing moment with his closest friend again.

* * *

**I'd changed the scene where Xion was sent to during her mission without the keyblade. In how I have this story going, that Heartless fight just couldn't be happening near the mansion. If it did, then a Heartless would be the least of Saix and Xion's problems. **

** Of all the friendship groups there are in Kingdom Hearts, the Sea-salt trio is no doubt my favorite and the small scene between Lea and Isa in Birth by Sleep reminded me of how my sister and I are towards one another. I being Lea and sis being Isa. **

** So yeah, of course, I am going to make Saix good in this series so I can get more of that friendship dynamic! **

**I apologize if Saix is getting a bit too OC, but I just like the idea that he used to be a cheeky/sassy brat.**


	5. Beatboxing Kangaroo

**And now it's time to introduce an OC creature of mine. I will admit, this chapter was fun to make. I hope you will find it just as enjoyable to read. **

**This will happen during Roxas and Xion's first team-up mission after Xion lost the ability to wield the keyblade.**

* * *

Leaving the portal, Roxas and Xion end up in a world called Olympus Coliseum. As always, the mission is to collect hearts; this time however, Roxas has to collect twice as many than before, so it would look like his team up with Xion makes them more productive. Checking the area, Roxas does not spot any Heartless but knows they soon will pop up. "Last time I was here, the Heartless showed up…" Xion steps forward, her attention is not on him nor his words. "Xion?" Roxas asks, confused about where her mind is at. Maybe on the whole keyblade issue? "Don't worry, you will get it back."

First there Xion realizes Roxas has been speaking to her. "Oh, um yeah," She returns the smile weakly, does drop and returns her attention to what she noticed before. "do you hear that?" She asks.

"Hear what?" Roxas is not sure what she's talking about. There's no sound of any matches going on in the Coliseum.

Xion cannot really explain it, it's a voice. Still, with no sounds, more like a sense that gives her an idea of a voice. All she can say for sure. "He's crying for help. Oh, Roxas, he is so scared." Xion tells him and wanting to help the owner of those cries, she runs the other direction of the Coliseum, towards a pathway that leads down to a dark and creepy underground area.

"Xion!" Roxas calls, not sure what gotten into her, it's not their mission in helping people, but she does not hear, so he has to follow her into this underground area.

Getting down here, Roxas takes notice right away that it feels like he's getting something heavy put onto his shoulders. Xion seems to feel it too but way busier searching for whatever she 'heard.' Roxas becomes nervous when his friend starts to call loudly: "Where are you?!" He quickly runs over and tells her, "Xion, we can't be spotted by the locals, this is supposed to be a secret mission."

"Sorry," Xion apologizes. She has never been told to avoid the locals in each world, so she never paid it much mind of being spotted. Still, Xion cannot ignore that crying voice. "but we can't just leave him…" and right that moment, a bunch of Heartless appears.

After having taken these ways stronger Heartless out, Roxas ponders for a moment, "Well, I suppose we can find this 'him' of yours. The Heartless down here does give more hearts—"

"Thank you, Roxas!" Xion cheers in relief, so glad she has such understanding friends.

Roxas smiles back to her, does drop when he starts looking around this creepy and huge cave Xion brought them in her small search for this voice only she can hear, apparently. "So, he's down here?"

Xion has to listen, the voice is clearer but still far off. "Yeah, he's here… I can't say for sure where, but…" She points to a scary gate, "It sounds like he's somewhere behind that door."

Alright, then that's where they will start. Roxas takes the lead and getting past the door, they find a room which floor is covered in a thick mist. A flying Heartless appears and Roxas runs at it, but barely four steps and the ground suddenly vanishes underneath him. "Wah!" He cries and drops right through the mist and smackdown onto the floor further down underneath.

Startled of what just happened, Xion trots over, although careful so she won't drop like Roxas did, "Are you alright?" she calls, finds a ledge and uses that to get down to where Roxas is lying.

"I'm fine, just… caught off guard." Roxas replies and gets back up. Xion nods and both turn to the Heartless that lured them into this small trap. It's out of his reach, so Xion throws some of her magic at it. A well-aimed fire spell makes the Heartless fall far enough down for him to finish it off with a solid whack with the keyblade. With that one gone, they walk down the path that before was hidden by the smoke, more Heartless arrive and after Roxas has taken them out, giving him a moment of rest. He rolls his keyblade arm of the ache he's feeling. "This place feels like it's sucking the strength out from me." He muses.

"Yeah, like something heavy is pressing down on my shoulders." Xion replies softly, but she will be fine as magic does not take much strength out from her. She turns back to Roxas. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to be down here for too long." Roxas replies, not sure how long he can stay ahead of these stronger Heartless with this heavy weight put on him and he does not know how much magic Xion has left. "Do you still hear him?" Xion nods and point the way, and Roxas starts walking again.

"Sure it's a beast of legends but... Gees Louse, if I knew it would be THAT annoying—"

Roxas pulls Xion behind a large, slimy rock at the voice talking. He puts a finger up to his lips, she nods and both carefully peak out from behind the rock. Further ahead stands a tall, grey-skinned man with blue flame hair, being the one complaining about something.

"I wouldn't have awoken it!" The flame hair guy grumbles, crossing his arms. He and the ears-dropping Nobodies all turn to the beating sounds, like music coming from the path ahead. "Now that blasted thing is keeping me from thinking with that obnoxious sounds it is making … would've been fine if it was a mean fighter, but nooo." The man facepalms, "Forget it, that thing is not worth my sanity." and he disappears in a puff of smoke.

Leaving their hiding spot, Roxas turns to Xion, startled in seeing such a hurtful look in his friend's eyes. "What's wrong?" He asks worried.

"He's in there," Xion points were those fast beating, sounds are coming from. Listing to it, she knows it's 'his' way of voicing the fear he's feeling. "he's so scared."

"Then let's calm him down." Roxas replies, she nods equally determent and both hurries to the room.

Inside this beating music is very loud and if this Xion has heard it since they got here; yeah, Roxas can say why she kept saying 'he' is scared. Just listening to it, he can sense the fear coming from those sounds. "Where is—" Roxas's question gets answered right away, for up from the large room's floor underneath their balcony, something big speeds past them, the sound of fear follows. Startled, Roxas runs over to get a better look. Jumping around the walls looking like creepy skeletons, is a creature in the shape of a kangaroo. Its a bit smaller than a Darksider and for each move it makes, the glowing squares on its back and head lights up and a sound is made. Roxas can't see what this creature is running from though, there's nothing in here other than this dark red kangaroo, with bright green square marks on its legs, arms, chest, part of its tail and around the wide eyes that is ice-blue, and slit like a snake's.

Xion leans over the balcony egde and calls to the fearful creature, "It's alright! You can calm down now!" but the sounds the creature is making are drowning her voice. "He can't hear us." She tells Roxas sad.

So this is 'him,' not what he expected but it's clear that kangaroo is scared and Xion won't leave it behind. Helping this creature would make Xion feel better, Roxas quickly scans the area and when spotting a chance, he leaps over the balcony right as the kangaroo jumps past them. He lands onto its back and the sounds change into a painful screeching, then turns rapidly as the now terrified creature tries everything to get him off. Roxas clings to the jumping like crazy kangaroo, already regretting his choice for this problem he cannot solve by using the keyblade.

The creature suddenly trips over itself in its state of panic, crashing to the floor below and throws Roxas off as well. The silence is eerie, and Roxas finds himself worried if he accidentally eliminated this scared creature.

He slowly gets back on his feet, watching the still kangaroo. It is alive and staring at him with a pair of wide eyes. Roxas only turns away from the terrifying creature when Xion appears after have been climbing down to this area, she trots over to the creature and carefully puts her hands onto its face.

The creature jerks at the touch, Xion hushes it gently and it drops its head back down to her. "We're sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She tells the kangaroo, petting the glowing marks on its head. The creature is confused but also relieved to finally meet a friendly face. It tells her it has been stuck in battle for so long, forced to fight but there was no reason to fight. It had to use its powers to kill. It does not want to kill…! Does it have to fight them too? Xion hushes it gently again, she feels bad for this distraught creature "You don't have to fight us. We're friends."

Friends? The kangaroo titles its head, it's been so long it has been around friends.

Roxas watches in awe Xion calm the kangaroo down; it's good though. "Is he going to be all right now?" He asks. Xion turns to him, smiling and nods with: "Yeah, I think so." That's good, but the struggle to calm it has lead them into quite the predicament. Roxas looks up to the balcony where they came from, climbing back up there will take forever. Roxas groans at the thought, "Getting back will not be fun…"

Xion follows his gaze and realizes the problem. "Oh…" but gets an idea. She turns to the kangaroo and asks it, "Do you think you can help us up back?" adding, "We can bring you out from this dreadful place."

The kangaroo nods as it very much would like to get out from this place. It gets up and bows down, Xion uses its arm as ladder and climbs onto its shoulders, right behind the glowing squares down the spine. "Roxas," She calls, getting her friend's attention. "he is going to help us."

Well, it makes the whole calming mister-sound-kangaroo worth it. Roxas trots over to the creature and climbs onto it as well, the kangaroo straightens up and starts jumping forward. The sounds it makes are more upbeat and cheerful. Making this ride for Roxas way more enjoyable as the creature leaps across the walls, up to the balcony and jumps still in that upbeat manner towards the large door.

The sounds do changes something more fearful when Heartless appear, Roxas gets on his feet and summons his keyblade. "I'll protect you!"

The kangaroo eyes him with those scared ice-blue eyes. The sounds faint and fearful, then it changes into a powerful beat, and jumps at the Heartless, making sure Roxas can hit them and each time he made contact with the Heartless, a beat is made which seems to be in tune with the rhythms the kangaroo's movements are making.

"You're making music together!" Xion laughs in how the creature and Roxas are working together. The kangaroo leaps around, clearly happy about it as well. It tells her this is what it wants to use its powers for; to make music that brings people together. "He's so happy!"

Roxas grins and must admit that this is one of the more enjoyable heart collecting missions he has ever been on. He jumps after a Heartless, destroying it with a single slash, releasing its heart and right as he falls, the kangaroo catches him with a happy beat. Getting out from this area became so easy thanks to the cheerful creature, but their fun heart collecting times comes to a sudden halt when a terrifying roar echoes through the caves.

The kangaroo's music stops and it stands frozen on the spot.

Silence, then out from seemly nowhere, a huge three-headed and very scary-looking dog appears. It roars and charges straight at the group. The kangaroo panics and flees from the dog that chases it.

Xion and Roxas both cling to the horrified kangaroo, their calls unheard by the fast and tense sounds coming from it.

Making a choice, Roxas leaps off the creature and hits the middle head of the three-headed dog with his keyblade, it does make the beast stop, to only turn its full attention on him. All three heads bite out after him and Roxas, not sure how to fight something that's not a Heartless, flees from the dog.

"Roxas!" Xion cries at the sight of her friend running for dear life away from that scary dog. She turns to the still fleeing kangaroo. "We have to help him!" It stops and turns to the scene, it is scared, not sure it can handle such a scary thing. "You can!" Xion tells it, "You are so much stronger than you think! You can do it, I know you can!"

Yeah… yeah! It can do it! The kangaroo nods and jumps at the dog. Leaps into the air and when it lands right above Roxas, a shockwave of sound pushed the three-headed beast back. The dog does recover fairly quickly and comes straight at them. The kangaroo freezes up.

"Do it again!" Roxas calls, readying his keyblade. It snaps the creature out from its fear and it slams its hands onto the floor, creating another sound wave. With the dog stunned, Roxas runs at with and hits it as hard as he can over the nearest face. The dog howls in pain, one of the other heads bites out after him, but the kangaroo snatches him away right in last second, whacking the dog with its tail and takes the run for it, this time, not in a state of panic.

With its battle music surrounding them, Roxas gets onto the creature's head, prepares his keyblade. The dog breathes fire at them, but the kangaroo's speed enables them to dodge it. Spotting an opening, "Now!" the kangaroo leaps off the nearest wall, head-butting the dog and Roxas uses the sudden halt to fly into the air and piece his keyblade into the beast's back. The dog collapses, lies still for a moment, then slowly gets up and whimpering flees from them.

Roxas dismisses his weapon and turns to Xion still riding on the kangaroo, she is beaming: "We did it!" He nods and is unable to stop smiling as well. Eyeing the kangaroo, "You were great." the creature, shaking from the fight, makes some happy sounds.

Getting out from the caves and back to the surface, Xion and Roxas slides off their big friend, with Xion saying. "It should be way safer up here." Both turns to the neon-green marked creature, it looks sad, well aware this is where they will go each of their ways. Xion feels sorry for it, but does not think it's a good idea to bring it back to the castle. "Don't be sad, we will visit you again, right Roxas?"

"Sure," Roxas nods, he wouldn't mind hanging out with this kangaroo, though doubts it will help him or Xion with heart collecting again. This guy is a scaredy-cat.

The kangaroo jumps cheerfully, already looking forward to that, it lets them pet its head as a goodbye before it, with a happy beat, jumps away.

Only there, Xion remembers their mission, "Oh, I forgot we needed to collect hearts." feeling bad she put them on such a detour, not that she feels particularly sorry but they will get in trouble if not—

"I think we got more than enough," Roxas assures her, he has taken out a lot of powerful Heartless down in those caves. "lets RTC." Xion nods and they both leave the world.

They head straight to the ice cream shop, smile weakly at the desk man commenting: "It looks like you two have returned from some grand adventure."

"You could say that..." Roxas replies as he pays for both of their treats. He and Xion go to the clock tower. Did not take long before Axel arrived, asking them both: "Hey, mission go okay?"

"I think it's gonna work." Xion replies to him, reminded in how thankful she is in having such good friends. "Thanks, Axel. You and Roxas are the best." She says, inwardly adding '_and Saix too'_ but since she's knows most the others fear Saix, she does not mention his name.

"We try," Axel smiles and takes a seat beside them, pulling out his own ice cream, he asks the two. "so where'd they end up sending you?" Axel blinks from how both teens got suddenly very excited. Before he knew: they are telling him this crazy story of dark caves with powerful Heartless, a kangaroo that communicates with beat music, and how it, Xion and Roxas defeated a three-headed and fire breathing dog.

Axel stares at them, not sure if Roxas and Xion exaggerate or actually telling him the truth. "Wow… some mission." He speaks hesitantly, having no idea how to react to this. His memories are not really of any help, Lea sure hell never encountered a beatboxing kangaroo or a three-headed, fire-breathing dog.

"Yeah! I sure hope I will see him again." Xion beams, "He's such a funny kangaroo, and he makes good music."

Axel blinks, "he?" and Roxas tells him with a shrug, "Xion sees it as a he, and he did seem to like her."

"He liked you too Roxas!" Xion exclaims, "Didn't you see how he protected you against that scary dog even though he was scared?"

Roxas laughs, "Yeah, and he really made the fight intense with the sounds he made."

Axel quietly listens to the two reminiscences that whole mission again. He can't help but think of two real human kids being excited about some good movie they'd watched. _'It's like they have a heart.'_ So, so strange, but he's not complaining.

* * *

**First time I played KH2 and came to the smoke room in the Underworld, I got quite surprised when Sora suddenly dropped through and mixed with my bit of twisted humor, well, Roxas's landing was far from graceful XD**

**you might be wondering why Roxas and Xion just didn't teleport back up, but a scene from Beast Castle showed me that Roxas never thought of using portals like that. So I figured he and Xion are both too inexperienced for such logic. **


	6. Fight the storm

**to Yue Twili: well, thanks to a certain virus going around, I have plenty of time on my hands, so updates will be more frequent. I am happy you like this story and will continue to do so.**

**I have skipped most of the missions, they are not really important for the story. Though I will include one of the missions in this chapter, you will know why when you read this.**

* * *

So far, the team-up between Roxas and Xion is going fine, Roxas is keeping up with the extra workload, and from the handwriting on the report sheet, Xion is the one doing the writing.

If he had a heart, Saix is pretty certain he would've felt proud of their work.

_'The puppet is not worth keeping around if it cannot use the keyblade.'_

"Hush it." He tells the dark voice, it's still hard to ignore it but at least with Axel helping him by taking off the workload, he is getting enough rest to put up a proper fight.

Speaking about workload, it's time to remind a particular lazy moron that his reports are unacceptable.

Saix heads to the Grey Area, waiting for everyone to arrive. Xaldin is the first, and the moment the man steps over to him, Saix hands him the mission. Xaldin takes off straight away. Xigbar and Luxord arrive a while later, however, neither feeling ready to leave just yet and they take a seat at the couches, soon doing a game of poker. Typical.

Saix ignores them for now, his attention shifted when Xion walks into the room. Their eyes meet and Xion gives him a weak but sweet smile. He cannot return it but his slightly fading yellow eyes do soften in how thankful she looks, _'Smart girl, she knows I am on this as well.'_

for why else would she give him that smile?

Then Demyx arrives and the amber glare is back in full force. He grabs the young man by the hood, demanding him annoyed. "You really expect me to accept this?"

"Whaddya mean?" Demyx asks oblivious, which only pissed Saix off further. Moron be happy he has great self-control, or he would be dusted by now.

"Don't 'whaddya mean' me," Saix sneers calmly, but the temptation in going Berserk on this idiots ass is very tempting. He shoves Demyx's report from yesterday up at the man's face, again barely have anything useful written on it. "What do you call this? A five-year-old could've done a better job than this shit!" Adding with an aura of rage, "**Fix it!**"

Seeing that scary look, Demyx grabs the report and walks fearfully away from the terrifying second-in-command. Musing under his breath, "Man, who reads those stupid reports anyway?" then notices the two keyblade wielders. "Oh, you two have a mission together again today?" and even he has taken notice of this: "You seem to be doing that a lot lately."

Roxas and Xion both shift nervously on their feet; neither have expected the others to take notice.

"The keyblade totally tears thought Heartless no problem, right?" Demyx continues to the two wielders. "I'm terrible at combat, so I was kinda thinking, it must feel so coooool to swing them around like that." and gets an idea. "Oh, oh, show it to me! Just for a second, come on be a pal." He begs Roxas and Xion. Roxas summons his keyblade in a flash of light. "Oh neat!" Demyx cries at the sight, it looks awesome. He then turns to the faceless and hooded Xion. "Okay, your turn!" Ahe hesitates for some reason. Demyx titles his head but mistakes the hesitating as shyness. "Come on, don't be shy. Show me, I bet it looks different from Roxas's!"

Knowing if this keeps going, Xion will be revealed. "Number nine, quit stalling and start rewriting that report!" Saix snaps at the man, who lets out a girly yelp and fortunately quickly leaves the two alone. Saix briefly glances at Xigbar and Luxord. The latter is watching Demyx run off with a brow raised while Xigbar… Saix does not like that gleam in the man's yellow eye. He pretends not to have seen it and opens a portal for Roxas and Xion. "Same about you two, work extra hard."

They head over to the portal, right before going, Saix warns them with a quiet voice. "I can't keep this up for much longer."

Roxas snaps his head to Saix, surprised to hear that the one he disliked the most, is actually on this as well and has been helping them from the sideline. The man's yellow eyes meet his, but they aren't cold and seems to have softened around the edges. "Move it." Saix command, Roxas nods and heads out, from behind, he hears Xion says softly: "Thanks," and she quickly joins him.

"That was a surprise." He says to her.

Xion brushes a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling, "Yeah, but I'm glad you've seen his better side too." for sometimes, it feels like only she knows about it.

With those two gone, Saix barks at the remaining to stop slacking and get to work, they grab their mission sheet and teleports off. Axel tried too, but Saix told him, "Supply up." to his friend who quickly got the hint and went to relax for a bit at the couches. After having sent Demyx off, Saix walks over to Axel, explaining to him the reason why he let Axel head out last. "You and I are going to Agrabah. A giant Heartless has appeared, and since Xion and Roxas still need to work together…" He trails off on purpose.

But that's no problem for Axel. "We need to get this thing to a place where it won't be destroyed by others. I gotcha." He smiles, glad they are talking like friends again, but does ask as this is the first time Saix has gone on a mission after he got the title of second-in-command. "Doing this for old times sake?"

Saix opens a portal, and both walk through the pathway of darkness, "It's either the Heartless or whoever decides to piss me off next." He replies. It feels like he is going to explode and would rather do that against a Heartless than towards a sentient being, yes, even Demyx shouldn't be in the crossfire of a full-blown Berserk attack.

Axel's eyes widened slightly but do understand Saix allusion of why he needs to get back onto the field. "Been a while you last been on edge like this." Isa couldn't do a Berserk; he only got able when he became Saix and got those yellow eyes. In the start, Saix seems to blow up on anyone who just looked at his, back then, still healing scar. Over time he learned to control his fit of rage but turned cold and indifferent, which was such a hard blow for Axel back in the day. "Xemnas been hard on you?" So glad that is finally over and Isa is showing in his Nobody again.

"It's the same," Saix replies, and it's not Xemnas that has made him unstable like this. It's more a combination of everything he has been dealing with lately. "I've been like this since I thought you died during Castle Oblivion."

Axel does a mock pretend of being surprised, "Woah, really? I never thought you cared about me." but is pretty sure he would feel joy hearing his friend admit such a thing. Isa has always been stubbornly proud to admit his own feelings, so hearing him actually do it means a lot to Axel.

Like Axel, Saix gets the sense of ease at hearing his friend tease him like they did back when they were two boys with hearts, and never missing a chance; "And why would I care about you?" Saix retorts lighthearted back. "It's not like you're doing anything other than stuffing your face with ice cream."

"And I am very good at it!" Axel laughs, Saix replies with a light huff, now THIS is how they should be talking. Been forever they last got a friendly spat. Which reminds him. "And lying too, for it looks like Xemnas fell for that report."

"You be happy he did, for he would've dusted my ass if he ever found out." Saix tries but fails to sound irritated, for, in reality, he is getting strong flashbacks on how to be amused about the fact that Xemnas never noticed that the report was full of bullshit. "But, I suppose your help did give me from free time to leave the castle."

"Nothing more therapeutic than killing some Heartless, am I right?" Axel smirks, Saix eyes him with that stone face, but Axel does not see that. All he sees is the bluish-green specks in Saix's eyes. His smile widens slightly at the sight, before doing a mocking pretend that he takes this whole mission seriously. "Now, let's get a move on and find that Heartless, can't let the boss think we're slacking off, right?"

"Right." Saix quirks a smile and follows his friend.

The portal appears in the dusty streets of Agrabah and the moment the two Nobodies have left, it closes. Hands crossed, Axel scans the area for said Heartless, he observes that the people around aren't in a panic frenzy as they usually become if Heartless are around. "Doubt it's nearby. People look busier cleaning up after the sandstorm than hiding from—" He gets rudely interrupted when a monkey decides to climb onto him. "What the?!" Axel swiftly catches the animal and pulls it off his neck, staring at the monkey, by the looks of it; a pet with that west and a small hat. In its hands is a fresh apple. "What we got here?" He reaches for the apple, and two things pretty much happened at the same time.

"Abu! Hey, you guys, hold onto him!" A local calls and the monkey decides that now is a good time to put up a fight. It tries to wiggle itself free, crying and wailing all kinds of monkey sounds and if Axel hasn't held it an arm's length from his face, he would've been scratched.

The local comes over and claims his pet, "Thanks, thought for a moment I had to chase him all over town." and the owner of the monkey returns the stolen apple to the merchant. When the local turns to the two oddly black-dressed men, they are gone. "Huh? Where did they go?" He didn't get the proper chance to thank them.

"Yup, there hasn't been a Heartless around with how chill the locals are." Axel remarks as he and Saix leave the busy streets, on the way, he snatches an apple from a nearby stall and starts eating it as they walk over to the city walls. "How big is that Heartless?" He asks Saix, still chewing on the stolen fruit.

"According to Xigbar's latest report, it's the source of the recent sandstorms." Saix replies calmly and right as he said it, they got sand thrown at them by a powerful wind. Irritated that there was no warning, Saix pulls up the hood, getting sand out from his long hair will take hours. "Speaking of the devil…"

Throwing away the now filled with sand apple, Axel puts his arm up to shield his eyes from the sand. It's hard but he spots the source, "There!" he points, not far away, a tornado of sand can be seen.

Saix opens a portal and they both heads over there, arriving at the spot, they almost get thrown off their feet by the strong wind, not making it better than the sand is whipping against what skin is still exposed. Axel has to pull up his hood as well from how hard the sand is hitting his face. Looking into the tornado of sand, he spots a huge Heartless that reminds him of a robotic caterpillar. Axel scans the area and can see this bastard is too close to the city. "Need to push it back, but where?"

"You'll figure that one out." Saix tells his fire-wielding friend and summons his weapon, the strong wind pulls down his hood, revealing a face twisted in rage, eyes glowing, scar jagged in reaction to his Berserk stage. Saix leaps at it and with a roar, "Moon shine down!" hurls his claymore right at its face. That hit made it stops creating the sandstorm, Saix does not see that, he's too deep in his Berserk mode to notice much, only his target and how much he wants to tear it to shreds.

Axel watches his blue-haired friend maul onto the Heartless, still finding it scary in how his calm friend can turn into a wrathful beast on a dime. At least this time, it serves a useful purpose and from how blind Saix seems to have gotten in his rage, it has been building up for quite a while.

Axel decides to stay back, not wanting to get in between and hit by that claymore. He takes a seat, watching, waiting for Saix to run out of steam. When his friend show signs of getting out from his Berserk, and good timing as well, that Heartless has been beaten to a pulp! "So glad I'm on his side," Axel muses and leaves his spot, joining Saix standing before the down Heartless, still in a Berserk mode but at least not running around like a maniac. "Isa, that's enough!" He calls his friend, hoping his voice will calm Saix down.

Noticing Axel, Saix forces himself to take deep breaths and slowly exhaling, it takes longer than usual to get out from the Berserk, but this has helped on the frustrations he has been dealing with lately. Slowly his face returns to normal, and the ache that always follows appears. Saix ignores it though and eyes the twitching Heartless "Let's get this thing to a more secluded spot."

Axel nods, steps over and kicks it. The Heartless twitches again, then after a moment, it gets up and starts sliding around.

He and Axel chase it, using their weapons to redirect its path.

Keeping this thing going the way they want is trickier than it looks, the darn thing is nimble compared to its size, and right when Axel goes into to whack it, the direction of the Heartless changes and, in an attempt to reach it, he loses his balance and falls right onto his butt. Remembering embarrassment, Axel quickly gets up and resumes the chase. They got it to some ruins, far away from the city and with it buying itself down there. Axel dries away the sweat from have been running around in this heat with a leather cloak, these things are not meant for heavy workouts. He turns to Saix and can see that he looks ready to drop dead, unlike Axel who can handle the heat (firepower) his friend is more a winter person, so being out in a desert must be torture. Especially in these cloaks that are heavy and uncomfortable. They are airtight and not allowing the skin any air, and that makes them stupidly hot. "Let's go back before I have to carry you." He tells Saix, who sends him an offended stare but does still let his friend use his shoulder as support. "Got everything out from the system?"

"Yeah." Saix muses, not sure why, but it felt wrong going in Berserk this time. It felt tainted, changed, turned into something it never should've been. But… why does he feel that now? His Berserk stage has always been like this... _'What if it hasn't?'_ A thought strikes him, this confuses him. If the berserk stage is tainted, then… how would it be when it's clean? He does not know, only that this makes him feel violated.

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Leaving Saix, who wanted a long, cold shower— not that Axel blames him. Their uniforms weren't made for running around in a desert.

Axel heads to Twilight Town, where he lies down, a ghost sense of irritation of how annoying that Heartless had been. Very certain, he will find sand in his uniform and hair for weeks after this… suddenly Roxas's face appears right above him and in that split second, memories on how to be startled flashes through him, making Axel jerks upward. "Whoa! Where did you come from?" He asks at Roxas and Xion's sudden arrival.

The two giggles amused by them successfully have startled their friend, Roxas then asks Axel, "How was your mission?"

Recovering from that small sneak attack by his two friends. "You know, I sure wish the Heartless would hold still once in a while." Axel puts a hand on his sour behind. "I fell right on my butt chasing it around." He turns to Roxas playfully mocking remark: "I thought you were tough." Axel brushes it easily aside thanks to having an older friend who is way better at the mocking comments. "Yeah, whatever, that's got nothing to do with it." and before he can stop himself, "At least Saix made it easy with the beat down he gave it." Aw dammit, is he now having to defend his friend against his new friends?

Speaking of the man, "Oh, right, we should thank Saix from have allowed us to stay teamed up like this." Xion speaks, so glad the man helped them out like this. Axel casts her a glance, he seems relieved and him voicing calmly: "Yeah, maybe I will invite him up here." Xion would like that idea, behind that cold façade, Saix is actually a really nice person.

Roxas is still a bit unsure about the second-in-command, but Saix did help them out, for without him— "Oh right, almost forgot. Xion," Roxas turns to her. "Show him," She nods smiling and summons her keyblade. Roxas waves over it. "ta-da!" He grins widely. Axel's eyes are wide slightly in reaction to see her keyblade.

Dismissing the returned keyblade. "Roxas, Axel, thank you." Xion says, genuinely grateful for the help. "Oh, and I should thank Saix too."

"You should thank him more than me." Axel says, glad that Xion got the power over the keyblade again, but he really didn't do anything to help. But Xion thinks otherwise as she points out: "You came with the idea I should team up with Roxas."

Roxas agrees, "If it weren't for you, Xion might never have remembered how to use the keyblade."

He's not used to this kind of praise, not even back when he was human. Axel scratches his neck, pondering in how he should react to this, his usually cocky behavior does not sound suiting. So maybe instead, "How about a sea-salt ice cream then?" both kids blink confused and Axel explains. "Buy one to Saix and me and we call it even."

Xion beams, "Sure!" turns around to leave but stops to asks, "Do you think the one to Saix will melt if I stay here for a while?" Axel chuckles and says, both to her surprise and joy: "Ah don't worry, I will bring him here; if it's alright with you." Xion does not mind at all, "Sure, it would be nice." she smiles.

Unsure, but since he owes the man for the aid, well, Roxas figures he can deal. "Alright." He says and does wonder if Axel is friends with Saix from how relieved Axel seems by this.

Meanwhile, back at the castle.

Saix is putting a new uniform back on, glances at the computer but his mind does not feel up to writing down the reports. The thoughts that his limit break might be corrupted, no longer how it should've been, it's troubling him deeply. But he should really get to work, has wasted a lot of time running around with Axel on that mission. Letting out a sigh, Saix grabs the mission sheets and begins to put them into the dossier of each world the Organization has been to these past ten years, not bothering to look up when footsteps incline he has a guest. Saix already knows who it is. "I don't really have time for a chat at the moment." He tells Axel, not fancying to push him aside, but Saix is quite behind at the moment.

"I will help you when we return."

That made Saix turn away from the papers, giving his friend a confused stare, "And where are we going?" Axel smiles: "Xion is buying us ice cream as thanks: she remembers how to use the keyblade." Oh, that's good to hear. Saix casts one glance to the papers, he really should finish them up, but… '_dang you Isa.'_

It's that side of him fault he's being rebellions. Still he gets up and leaves the papers. "You better stay true in your promise." For otherwise, Saix would need to be up all night.

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?" Axel pretends to be offended, his friend rolls his eyes and they both leave. Axel is the first to leave the portal, walking straight over to his usual spot, and like déjà vu Saix takes a seat right beside him on the left, just as he did back when they first started doing this. Watching the setting sun with Saix beside him once again. "Now, this really throws me back." Axel voices and is glad as that is one of the few good memories he has from their early days of the Organization.

Saix nods in agreement, the faint smile on his lips does fade when the two keyblade wielders return, Xion holding two ice creams, Roxas giving him unsure looks, figures the boy is not certain on where they stand. Saix does not judge Roxas. He was quite cold towards the boy in the start.

Xion hands both an ice cream, saying to him, "Thank you, you really helped us out." he gives her a simple nod before turning to his ice cream.

Roxas and Xion take a seat on their spot, unpacking their own sea-salt ice cream and they eat them in silence.

* * *

**And by that, Saix is now offical part of the group. Axel is definitely thrilled about that (as much a Nobody now can get happy). Xion is relieved that others have seen the gentler side to the man, while Roxas needs a bit of time to get used to Saix now will hang out with them. **

**drawing suggestions are always welcome, and you can find them on my DeviantART page, my username is the same.  
Same with comments, I will reply to them at the next chapter update. **


	7. Wishful thinking

Watching Xion cheerfully wave her keyblade around the Grey Area, even showing it to Demyx— who found it lame it looked like Roxas— Axel crosses his arms, quirking a smile at the sight. "She sure seems happy, now that she got her keyblade back." He remarks amused to Saix, who, pretends he hasn't noticed and busier with his papers, but Axel can see that the almost teal eyes are shifting to her once and a while. Axel eyes his blue-haired friend. "Been waving it around like a victory flag since yesterday."

Saix act that he does not care drops for just a moment, his eyes soften at the girl waving happily to them with her keyblade. Axel finds it cute in how much Xion seems to matter for his friend, and eyeing Xion, he can see she looks at Saix with admiration. "it's like watching a younger sibling."

"Don't be ridicules," Saix brushes that remark off, "we can't feel such bonds."

"Whatever you say." Axel smirks to his friend.

Resisting the urge to huff and roll his eyes at Axel, Saix decides to do his actual job and barks at the others. "Alright, enough playing around. get off your butts and get to work!"

Demyx, Xigbar and Xaldin all give him annoyed looks but does head out on their missions. Roxas seems a little annoyed too but has the air he understands Saix's action and Axel merely rolls his eyes, chuckling and both heads out. Xion is the only one showing enthusiasm for doing her job.

"Yes sir!" and she runs out to whack some Heartless with her keyblade.

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After missions, the group meets up at the clock tower, here Roxas makes an off comment that he wants to do this all the time. This actually made Axel snort a laugh and asks the kid amused. "Hang out all the time? That's so out of the blue."

"I know it's kind of sudden, but then we could eat ice cream like this forever!" Roxas says.

Chewing lazily at the cleaned stick, Saix tries to imagine them being up here all the time, and honestly, he thinks it will get boring if that's all they did. "Sounds like so much fun." He speaks sarcastically.

Roxas smile drops, he recognizes that tone and knows Saix didn't mean those words positively. He frowns and disgruntled at Saix has stopped that cheerful thought. "Well, I think it sounds awesome…" He grumbles, chewing on his ice cream.

"You guys…" Axel smiles at Roxas, like Saix, seeing the issue in Roxas so-called logic. "is eating ice cream together forever really the only thing you want to do?"

Xion and Roxas look at one another and at the same time replies: "Yes."

Resisting the urge to facepalm, Axel tries again, "Come on you two. Don't you think we'll get kinda bored if we did this all the time?"

Now that he mentions it, "Hmm, I guess it would…" Roxas muses, still he enjoys doing this and would like to do it more often, but he guesses it will get boring if that's all they did.

"It's a nice dream, but it's kinda hopeless," Axel takes a big chunk of his ice cream. "cuz we're Nobodies, remember? We could disappear at any time; leaving nothing behind and it sucks—" A sudden jag from Saix makes him turn and Axel stares into the horrified and sad looks of the two keyblade wielders. It takes him more than a little off guard. "Hey, what's with those looks?" He asks them dumbfounded, it's like he kicked their puppy or something. "I'm not trying to be cruel, that's just how it is for a bunch of Nobodies like us!"

"Might become real if we manage to get our hearts back," Saix speaks up, but like Axel, is starting to lose hope on that dream. "if it's even possible." He would like to have a heart again, feel genuine emotions instead of these ghost sensations.

But it has been ten years for them, so keeping up hope has become very difficult. "A silly dream, that's what it is." Axel shrugs, Saix nods in agreement.

"Well, maybe it's silly and just a dream, but…" Roxas smiles in this simple thought he wants to become a reality, "I will want to just be able to hang out with you guys forever." Xion nods in agreement.

Neither saw the strange look the two adults give them, for when Roxas turns to them, the look is gone. "What's your dream?" Followed by another question, "Is hanging out with us that bad?"

The look those two give them is adorable and so genuine it is impossible to resist. "…Of course not, dummy." Axel smiles, he turns to Saix when his oldest friend sits up, a face that reminds him of the first time Lea and Isa proclaimed each other as best friends.

Hanging out with Axel again, being around Roxas and Xion, both displaying such genuine emotions that one should think they both have hearts. It makes him feel like having one himself, hanging out with them like this; "I think it's the best idea I've heard all day." Saix says, turning his no longer yellow eyes up to the sky. Axel does the same and Saix finds himself in an old scene, back when they were kids and looking to the sky while eating the same brand of ice cream.

This time, Xion and Roxas are in this picture as well. That's where Saix thinks of something Axel said back when they were still humans. "As long we keep each other in our thoughts, we won't be apart. In a way," Saix turns slightly so his eyes can properly meet the two's, "we live in each other's memories." it does not go unnoticed for him that Axel remembers where this came from and his friend scratches his head.

Roxas titles his head at what Saix said; even if he didn't fully understand it, it does make sense. "So, as long we think about our friends, we won't be apart?"

"Exactly," Axel nods, tapping the sides of his temple with a smile. "got it memorized?"

"Hard to forget you; trust me, I've tried for years by now." Saix remark deadpan and gets shoved by Axel: "Hey!" the two kids laugh at the whole thing and after exchanging a look with one another, the two adults start laughing as well.

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"So, what now?" Axel asks, leaning up against the wall, watching Saix lazily but has full attention on him. "If what you're saying is true, there's really no use for us to play after Xemnas fiddle." They only went along because of the promise the Organization will help them regain their hearts, but if that's just a fat lie... "We could just leave, try to make the best out of this pitiful existsene."

"We could," Saix agrees quitely, however, "but you know as well as I that betraying the Organization is not tolerated," Saix points out, gesturing at the scar on his forehead, adding. "otherwise, we might end up as those in Castle Oblivion."

Axel drops his gaze at the two reminders. Marluxia and Larxene were eliminated because they were planning to overthrow Xemnas, hence why he was sent to remove them. The senior staff was just in the way for– the back then, cold and cruel Saix's plans. And back when he and Saix were still new, They were still two rascals, didn't listen to the older Nobodies command and Saix especially held no sense of obedience towards Xemnas command. That got them into their share of beatings, never kept Saix down for long though, but after one too many disloyal stunts, Xemnas put his friend up to show and tore that x-shaped mark into his forehead. Saix was never the same person after that, well now he is, but it was one hell of a long wait before his friend would return. "We're stronger this time around. I mean, I can easily measure up to Luxord and Demyx, and I'm certain you're in the same league as Xaldin and Xigbar."

"What about Xemnas?" Saix demands, he is strong but does not think he can defeat Xemnas. Not to mention: "and if we turn against the Organization, every dusk— thousands must I remind you, will be chasing us down. There won't be any rest for us." His eyes narrow at the thoughts of their dark situation. "There's nowhere to run…"

Axel drops his head at the reminder, well aware that there is no place safe for them. The sound of chatter makes him look up, Xion and Roxas come walking, both smiling at whatever they are talking about. The conversation from yesterday pops to mind, seeing them show the same light he and Saix did before they became Nobodies, "They don't deserve this…" and this gives him an idea, a crazy one but it might work. "What if we took Roxas and Xion with us?"

He wants to say that it's a stupid idea; it is but what Axel said does make him realize. "Xemnas needs keyblade wielders to whatever plan he has. I do not fully believe he is going to use Kingdom Hearts for our benefit and with them, we might gain the upper hand."

Quickly catching on what Saix is indicating, "Is that all you see them? Tools for our own agenda?" Axel asks and so glad neither of the twoise in earshot.

Saix shakes his head. "No, I don't see them as tools, but I won't deny their usefulness for us either."

Axel crosses his arms, "So we're going to keep them close?"

Saix nods, "Yes, make them trust us above anyone else; so if the day arrives, they will side with us over the Organization." having Xion and Roxas as allies will be incredibly useful. More so when they both have keyblades, something Xemnas desperately needs. Saix turns his gaze to Kingdom Hearts, Xemnas promise for them to become whole, but Saix is starting to get the sense that's not Xemnas agenda. The members of the Organization are mere tools and Saix is getting tired of being used as one. "With them, we hold the power of the flow of hearts."

Axel can see Saix point, Xion and Roxas are the most important members of the Organization and if those two sides with them, Xemnas has lost the keys that form the promise of gaining a heart. And the task of keeping the two on their side, yeah, it's not that hard. It's as simple as being their friend. "We already have them on our side. Xion and Roxas consider us both as friends."

"But knowing Xemnas, he will do something to split us apart." Saix points out, Xemnas has hinted in using Xion to keep Sora from ever waking again. Saix is not sure how exactly that works, only that he does not care about Sora's fate. As long this plan won't harm Xion or Roxas, then he will go along, for now at least.

Noticing the other members are arriving, Saix signs to Axel that they can't be seen conversing together. His friend gets the hint and walks off.

Pretending he never had the conversation with Axel, Saix sends each member off on their mission. With them out, he returns to his room and begins working on reports. The silence is eerie, and it does not make it better that his mind is constantly wandering back to his childhood.

* * *

** I find it incredibly cute and fun in how naive Roxas and Xion are at times, but it does make sense as they both have no memories on how to act, so they depend on Axel and Saix to explain to them how things work. **

**Axel and Saix are making up their own plans, this time around as equals and not superior and grunt. It does make Axel way more cooperative towards what Saix is telling him.**

**Comments are always welcome, I will respond to them in the next chapter. **


	8. Vacation Time

**I blame an adorable picture I found on DeviantART for this chapter. But it gave me a chance to have some fun with the rules I have made to this universe.**

* * *

"About time we got a vacation." Axel remarks right after Saix has put up the poster stating they got said vacation, his friend gives him a deadpan stare. Axel chuckles, well aware that it's not Saix deciding when they get a vacation day. "What made the big man decide we needed a day off?"

Saix walks away from the poster, his eyes to the city outside. "I am unsure, but whatever it is, Xemnas and Xigbar are leaving the castle. I was supposed to accompany them, but I gave the excuse I was too busy with the paperwork."

"Sounds like you dodged a bullet of plain boredom," Axel says.

"Indeed," Saix agrees, they leave the Grey Quarters and walking towards the rooms of each member. "I take you're going to waste the day sleeping."

Axel laughs, "You know me. Unless…" he smiles to his friend. "you have something in mind?" He stops when Saix does, his friend's gaze goes to the dark city below, and Saix next words catch him off guard. "Do you ever think about home?" Axel watches him for a moment, hesitates before walking up beside him, "Have you?" he asks in return.

Saix is quiet for a long time, trying to sort out his thoughts. "Lately, my mind has been repeating memories to back when we were humans." He turns to his friend, asking, "Do you remember the garden? We used to mess the up the flowerbeds when playing with those stupid Frisbees of yours."

"Hey, they were awesome!" Axel exclaims exaggerated but does follow his friend down memory lane. He chuckles though it's a sad one. "I wouldn't have it memorized if I didn't remember, but I wasn't sure if you ever thought about home."

"I've tried not to, but it's getting harder." Saix admits, those memories are painful for him, and that's the only good thing of not having a heart. They can't feel the pain of knowing their home has been utterly destroyed. "Part of me wants to go and see how... but, why should I go to a place that holds nothing other than bad memories?" He turns away from Axel, musing, "Be reminded of everything I have lost?"

"You haven't lost everything." Axel reminds him, feeling bad that his friend is thinking about home and being painfully aware that it's gone. Saix turns to him, and it's always such a comforting sight of seeing teal instead of the yellow. "I'm still here." His friend smiles ever so slightly and Saix turns his gaze to the sky where Kingdom Hearts can be seen where he says: "Makes this miserable existence durable."

The sounds of footsteps and both turn to who is approaching. Turns out to be Roxas. Axel gives the boy a smile. "Oh, hey, Roxas. Hear about the vacation? About time we had a day off."

Roxas, however, is utterly at a loss at what it means to have a vacation. "I've never had a vacation before," Blushing when Saix chuckles at his words, at least the man is understanding: "You do not remember your human past." Roxas wish he could be like Saix and Axel, it would spare him from this embarrassment. "What's my job during vacation?"

"What's your— Roxas, you're really missing the point." Axel exclaims in amused disbelief of what the boy is saying. He turns to his closest friend, who decides to come to Roxas defense: "For him, this is the first. So why don't you enlighten him?" Axel rolls his eyes at Saix's suggestion but turns to Roxas and explains the teen, "Vacation is where you can do what you like, there's no one to tell you what to do today."

Roxas is quiet for a moment before saying in a low voice, "But… I don't know what I like..." hoping for some answers on what to do this vacation, Roxas asks Axel and Saix. "What are you two gonna do?"

Axel crosses his arms, smiling "I am going to sleep and once I'm done with that, roll over and sleep some more."

"Don't you spend enough time in bed already?" Roxas asks.

"Apparently not." Saix replies dryly, Axel gives him a look and since his friend is being a smartass, he demands Saix plans for today, "Alright, smart guy, why don't you tell us your plans for today?" hopefully it's not going back to the ruins of their home.

Pondering for a moment, Saix turns his gaze back to the sky, only one thing he is sure of; he is not going to spend the vacation here. Staring at the black sky, he realizes there is something he has been missing; stars. At least he knows a world that offers him such a sight. "I'm going off-world to see a real night sky." he answers.

"Real night sky?" Roxas repeats, confused about what Saix meant, Axel is the one who explains: "Yeah, before he became the second-in-command, Saix was quite the night owl." – what's a night owl?

"I spend enough time here, so I am leaving for today." Saix answers, moves to leave, but a sudden idea makes him stop and ask, "Why don't you join me? It would be different from what we usually do."

It does not take long to decide on that part. The bed's call is not tempting enough for this change of scenery, "sure, I'm game." Axel replies, turning to Roxas. The boy is a bit confused, but with a genuine curiosity in his eyes, Roxas nods with a smile. "Okay."

They find Xion and like Roxas, curious about the idea. Saix opens a portal and brings them to an entirely new world. It is quite unlike the others she and Roxas have been to, this world is a vast and beautiful forest. It's night here, so all of the stars are out as well as the moon, lighting this forest up in a manner that makes it look very mysterious. Xion stares wide-eyed at the sight, does snap out from it when Axel grabs her hood and pulls her back: "Careful there, squirt, it's a long way down." Only there, she realizes how close she was to the edge. "Eek!" She back quickly off and ends up stepping into Axel.

He catches her, but not without getting all his air punched out. "Sorry!" Xion cries. He brushes it off, "No worries." and turns to Saix, he blinks but quickly smiles at seeing a familiar sight of his friend standing quietly, watching the night sky with eyes, like the moon, has a certain soft glow in them.

Roxas and Xion notice it too and both watch Saix in wonder of this subtle change. They hesitate, but an encouraging nod from Axel, they step over to the quiet second-in-command and look up to the starry sky.

"Whoa…" Roxas gasps; he has never seen that many stars before, then again, he has never taken the time to just stop and look up to a night sky.

"It's beautiful," Xion whispers.

Saix turns his gaze away from the sky and down to the two keyblade wielders, finding himself glad that they too can see the beauty in the night. Not sure why, but he starts to tell them what his grandfather used to tell back when he was a kid. "A saying goes; that every single star is a world, their light is what shines back down to us."

All of these stars… is a world? "There's so many." Roxas says and does wonder, "Do you think people are looking at the world we're in?"

"Maybe," Axel replies, sitting on the edge of this cliff, his green eyes are on the forest below and how the moon is casting its soft glow over this world. "Who knows, maybe you are staring right back at whoever is watching the stars this very moment." He blinks at how wide-eyed in wonder the two have become, and can't help but smile in how human they are acting. _'I never get tired of watching them.'_

After a while of standing, the others decide to take a seat besides Axel. They watch the world's mysterious beauty in silence, broken at Roxas's question. "How did you find this world?"

"It's one of the worlds the Organization went to back in the day." Saix replies and after a moment of silence, he admits something strange about the reports of this world. "For some reason Xemnas lost interest in this world, reports states there's no Heartless here."

See, that's quite interesting, "Really? How so?" Axel asks but Saix shrugs, replying: "I have no idea; maybe it's protected." Oh, like Disney Castle? That's also one of the worlds where no Heartless can invade, making it useless to the Organization. It makes him wonder what kind of protection this world has?

Axel opens his mouth, but a sudden move from Xion makes him forget about it and instead turn to the girl who has a strange gleam in her light-blue eyes. "What's up Xion?"

Xion gets on her feet, listening intensely at the voice. Unlike the other one, this one isn't sad, but it sounds to be looking for something. "Hey! Can you hear me!" She calls out to the forest, catching her friends off guard.

"Xion, what the…?" Roxas asks. Axel and Saix both have a confused face of who Xion is calling to as well.

The voice hears her, asking if she can hear her voice? Xion calls back to this voice, "Yes, I can hear you!" this makes the voice quite excited and it asks where she is. Spotting something in the horizon, Xion waves. "Over here!"

"Who are you calling to?" Saix asks, blinking when the wind starts to blow, but not in a natural manner, he can feel magic in that wind, very powerful magic. Axel felt it too and along with him, jumps on his feet. Both summon their weapons at what Xion has lured to them.

Roxas is confused about what made Saix and Axel react that way, the wind felt strange yes, but nothing that cries danger. That thought is to be argued, for out from the forest, a huge purple cobra appears, using the strange wind to get up to them. This giant snake towers over them, it's ice-blue, with cat-like pupil are staring intensely down to them. Different shades of purple with a bit of green leaves bands are wrapped around its purple body, out from them, that strange wind is coming from. Roxas jumps on his feet and summons his keyblade. The snake snaps its eyes to him.

A keyblade? The cobra asks, so that legacy hasn't been entirely lost. Xion is not sure what she meant, only that this creature sounds relieved about this little fact. "I have a keyblade too," she tells the snake and shows it. The cobra eyes the other keyblade, but unlike with Roxas, she did not seems happy about her having a keyblade. This confuses Xion and before she can ask, the cobra tells her that if she and her comrades wish to leave this world, then Xion will have to unlock her true powers. "What do you mean?" She asks the cobra.

The flying snake does not answer; instead it suddenly strikes all four of them with its wind magic, and with a tail swipe, sends them all rolling down the cliff.

Down into the forest, dizzy from that crazy roll, which didn't make it better that two keyblade wielders are on top of him. "What was the deal with that thing?" Axel asks from his spot on the ground.

"It said something about my true power." Xion muses, not moving from her spot as she is too focused in her ponder what the cobra meant by that. "I wonder what she meant?"

"I notice it had the same armored heart symbol like the kangaroo, and only you heard its voice." Roxas points out and suggests his idea of what the snake might have meant, "Maybe you have some ability involving those creatures?"

"Hm... maybe." Xion muses, blinking when Axel suddenly says: "Cool, now would you two get off of me?" Only there she and Roxas realize they have been lying on him. Quickly getting up, "sorry," Xion says sheepishly.

Getting back up as well, Axel scans the forest for their remaining member, he spots Saix come walking over to them, having an intense frown on his face, one Axel knows his friend only gets when they are in deep trouble. "What's the problem?" He asks, and Saix shows by revealing that a large part of his cloak has been torn, meaning Saix won't be able to use the corridors of darkness. "Ah, I see the issue. No worries," Axel assures him and opens a portal "I simply go back and fetch you a—"

Seeing it in last second, Saix quickly grabs Axel, "Don't!" pulling the red-haired away from the portal, Axel gives him a good pretend to be confused. He points at Axel's side, revealing his cloak has been torn by that cobra's wind strike as well and before Xion and Roxas would suggest they leave. Saix walks over and checks those two cloaks, dammit... "Torn as well," Meaning none of them can use the corridors of darkness without seriously endangering themselves.

"Aw shit…" Axel swears.

"What's the big problem?" Roxas asks confused as to why Saix and Axel got so upset that their coats got a bit torn up, granted this is the first time it has happened. The Organization uniform is surprisingly durable.

"Roxas, these coats aren't just for show." Axel tells the teenage boy and just as confused girl. "They protect us against the darkness there is inside the corridors, without them, the corridors of darkness will destroy us." Both Xion and Roxas's eyes wide in horror, and Axel raises a brow when Roxas asks fearfully, "Wh-What about light?" Huh? Axel blinks but quickly understands the question when Roxas and Xion start getting surrounded by light, making the two jump. Axel lifts his own hand and if he could, he would've gotten one hell of a scare in seeing his shape is glowing. "Oh you gotta be kidding me…" The light intensified, blinding him and when it fades, Axel is finding himself in a completely new form— they all are. "What the hell?!" He jumps that this light now has turned them all into… deer.

Well, this is new, and yet Roxas does not find scary, it's hard when watching a reddish deer is yelling with Axel's voice. For some reason, he finds it hilarious and cannot help but laugh, more so when Axel stumbles over his own legs.

"Roxas, this is not funny!" Axel calls annoyed that the boy, now looking like a golden-brown fawn and is laughing at this world's idea of tormenting a stranded Nobody.

Tries to, but Roxas can't stop, "I-I'm sorry," he keeps laughing, "but it just looks so funny!" more so when Axel frowns looks so strange when he has a deer face. Roxas collapses onto the ground from his laughter.

Xion is laughing too, but also in a small observation she did to her fellow keyblade wielder. "Aww Roxas, you look so cute!" It makes Roxas stop his laughing, repeating her words flustered: "C-Cute?!"

Now it's Axel turn to laugh, for now that Xion mentioned it, "Yeah, you two look pretty cute as fawns." and turning to Saix who has been quiet this far. "Am I right?" Only to meet the funniest sight ever and it's his turn to bursts out laughing, which is quite the accomplishment considering he's a Nobody.

Saix is not amused, not only their torn cloaks make them unable to use the corridor of darkness but that this world's magic is such a huge troll that it made them into deer, which did that the antlers now on his head… got trapped between a bunch of branches!

"If you're done laughing." Saix shakes his head in an attempt to get free, but all that does is shaking some leaves off. "Get me out from this tree…!"

Xion and Roxas step over to help but pretty quickly realizes that it's not that easy walking on four and both trip over their hooves and rolls into the still lying down Axel. The now red stag shaped man starts laughing again with: "Welcome to the club you two." and the red deer turns to his still stuck friend, "We would, but as you can see; none of us can walk."

"Fantastic…" Saix grumbles, already regretting his choice from have left the castle. A hooting mixed with a bit of laugher makes them all look up, except Saix, since he's stuck. In another tree is a horn-owl, being the one chuckling at their inconvenience.

"Well, well, it's not every day one sees a stag taking care of the fawns." The owl remarks fly down to a rock nearby and greet Xion and Roxas. "Hello, little ones." A quick check, "Having trouble taking your first steps?" They nod, both staring in awe that the owl before them is talking. The owl chuckles and asks Axel, "You wouldn't mind if I taught them?"

"Not at all." Axel replies for it's not like he can teach them.

The horn-owl turns back to Roxas and Xion, and after a bit of explanation and practice, the two fawns are jumping around. The stag got up and walking as well, and only there, the owl notices the second stag, this one light grey, a rare color in the forest. And that one is stuck under a tree. "Quite the predicament you got yourself in there, my good sir." The owl chuckles, this almost white stag nods. The owl flies up to the branches keeping that one trapped and tells the red stag, "Now, if you take those," pointing at some of the lower branches and the owl grabs others with his talons, "I will take these."

Axel nods, and since he does not have hands, he instead grabs the branches with his mouth and on the owl's count, pulls. Saix gets free, but since he hasn't gotten the trick in how to walk, he ends up falling straight on his face. Axel really has to bite his lips so as not to laugh, still struggling not to laugh, he turns to the owl. "Thanks for the help." The owl nods and flies off.

Walking over to Saix, Xion asks the new light grey deer, "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing but my pride." Saix replies before he wobbles back onto his hooves, he turns to Axel, who walks over to his side with: "Let's show you how to move around."

* * *

**Yeah, I did that and does not regret it! I did at first make this world being Pocahontas,' but after that adorable drawing of a deer Lea, I just couldn't help myself and changed the world. **

**Also, introducing a new OC creature. I won't say what's it called or why Xion is the only one able to hear them. It will be explained throughout the story.**


	9. The Deer Forest

** Before we begin, I quickly want to explain how I made the Lore about the worlds. **

**All worlds have some sort of magic in them. Most are barely noticeable, while others change visitors' form, all to keep the world order. The Organization coat protects the Nobodies both from the darkness but also the light that changes one shape. I hope this clears up a few things. **

**enjoy**

* * *

The forest has become lighter now that the sun is up, meaning the vacation time is soon at its end, but it's not like the group has any ways of returning back to the castle. "So, did that snake tell you anything?" Axel asks Xion while they all traverse the forest like a bunch of deer, not the way he expected this vacation to be, but hey; makes for one hell of a memory.

Saix jumps over a large tree trunk, closely followed by Roxas. Meanwhile, Xion replies to the red deer beside her. "She said something about unlocking my true powers; only there will we be able to leave." Xion tries to jump over the large trunk, but didn't get high enough and ended up landing halfway on the trunk.

Axel gently pushes Xion over with his antlers, when sure she is over and away, he jumps over this obstacle. "Any idea what powers 'she' spoke about?" He asks right as he lands beside the dark grey fawn.

"Maybe the ability to understand creatures such as her?" Xion tries to shrug, but it's hard when walking on four legs. "She did have the same symbol as the sound making kangaroo."

Not to mention it was that snake that put them into this weird situation in the first place, so, in that case. "We should track down the cobra," Saix suggests the three others, he stops briefly so Axel can get up beside him. "It was the one who put us into this situation in the first place by destroying our coats." Axel nods in agreement and Saix turns to the dark grey fawn that is Xion. "Can you hear its voice?"

Xion walks a little beforehand the others, hear ears moving at her listening intensely after the voice of the cobra. She stops and stares at a certain angle, "I hear her, she is calling. Wants us to find her." and Xion sets into a run. "This way!"

The others quickly follow, going way faster thanks to their deer shapes. Xion leads them to a more open area in the form of a meadow, but right as they are about to enter this area: "Wait!" A female voice calls and the group is stopped by a doe.

A fawn appears from the forest as well, gives Roxas a quick look before turning to the doe, asking her, "Mother, what's wrong?" proving to be this doe's son.

"You must never rush out to the meadow." The mother doe gently lectures both her son and Xion. "There might be danger. Out there, we won't be protected by the forest." She eyes the meadow, "So we have to be very careful." adding mostly to her son, "Wait here, I'll go out first." and she slowly heads out to the meadow.

Roxas is a bit confused by that doe's hesitating and warning of going out to the meadow area. "But there aren't any Heartless here, and if they were," He eyes his friends "we can fight them, right?"

"We can't really use our weapons like this." Axel points out and lifts his right leg to prove his points. Roxas summons his keyblade but can't even hold it with his mouth as the handle is too big, so the light-brown fawn dismisses it with: "Maybe it is a good thing there's no Heartless…"

"What is a Heartless?" The other fawn asks, making the group turn to him. "Are they dangerous?"

"Very, but they aren't any here." Axel replies to the fawn.

The fawn smiles, "That's good." and shyly asks these two other fawns. "Are you here for the meadow too?"

But before either of them can answer, his mother calls, "Come on, Bambi, it's alright."

"Sounds like there's no danger." Axel remarks and begins to walk out to the meadow, Roxas and Xion follows without much thought. Saix casts the fawn named Bambi a look. The fawn is hesitating but Saix shrugs it off and follows the others.

Bambi slowly joins his mother and when she starts running playfully around. He casts away his fear and leaps after her, both running and jumping around as only happy deer can do.

Bambi does stop his happy running around when he almost runs into that other male fawn, he backs away and runs a big circle around him, no idea how to be around other fawns and think he rather play on his own.

Both the young keyblade wielders stops and watch Bambi run around, both curious of why he's doing that for no apparent reason. "What is he running from?" Xion asks.

A quick check and Axel replies with a small laugh. "He's just playing."

"Playing? What's that?" Roxas asks, casting another look to Bambi that is now running around in the small river. He titles his head at this as it reminds him of how the local kids in Twilight Town would be running around when he and the others are sitting and eating ice cream at the clock tower.

Axel opens his mouth to explain, but stops himself. How in the world is he supposed to explain how goofing around and being silly feels like? He looks at Saix for help, but that light grey stag only gives him a 'that's your own grave' look, so no support from there. With no other idea, Axel admits, "It's hard to explain," and suggests. "but why don't you join him?" Roxas and Xion gives him a dumbfounded look, but hey, since they are stuck here, might as well put their vacation time to some good use. "We can stay here for a little while."

The two exchanged a look, before Roxas runs over to Bambi, the other male fawn bashfully backs away, only to back up against another fawn. One way more open and playfully as that one runs around him and the two key bearers, laughing loudly.

This new female fawn stops before Roxas, tilting her head, still smiling before starting to jump around. Roxas almost stumbles over himself in an attempt to keep an eye on this agile fawn, then, when she splashes some water on him by running through a small pond. Roxas finds himself compelled to return the favor and begins to run after her, he didn't hit the new fawn but Xion instead.

"Hey!" She cries and before he can apologize, she jumps right into the water, splashing water on him and the female fawn. The female fawn gets into a fit of giggles and soon running around the nervous Bambi; who tries to get away from her. Roxas didn't really notice, he's busier trying to splash Xion with water. Bambi did get over his shyness and soon all four are chasing each other around at the pond area. The chase leads out from the pond area, and out to the meadow.

They do stop for a moment when a lot of adult deer appear, many of them are stags and when seeing a pair briefly butt heads. Bambi tries to copy them towards Roxas, the light-brown fawn does the same and they laughing pushes each other with their heads, before joining the two girls in their play of chasing one another.

Their chase leads over to Axel and Saix, both watching intrigued but also baffled that Roxas and Xion, in fact, are able to know what playing is without even know what it fully means. The playing group runs off again. Axel turns to his friend, hesitates but then pushes him with his head. Saix stares at him for a moment, before returning the favor by headbutting him. The two have a moment of fun pretending to be real deer, ending with Saix toppling his friend over, looking down at him with a smug smirk. Axel gets back up, but whatever he was going to say... never leaves his mouth. Cries of a large murder of crows made them both look up and when checking the area, they notice that all of the animals on the meadow are either running or hiding away.

One look from the light grey stag and Axel hurries over to the oblivious of the danger kids. He stops them, "Something's wrong." and quickly leads them back to Saix, while the mothers of Bambi and the female fawn leave the meadow area as well.

Noticing the sounds of barking dogs that are fast approaching. "We have to leave, now." Saix tells them and starts running the same way as the inhabitants of this world did.

Axel, Xion and Roxas follow his example. The sounds of dogs are getting closer and right as they reach the forest, a loud 'bam!' of a gun echoes through the meadow.

Hearing that, Axel voices his thoughts, "Why did this world turn us to deer if there exist humans?" but another shot from that hunter made him brush that question off and instead follow the others deeper into the forest, the echoes of the dogs can still be heard, but it seems safe for now.

"Xion, where's the snake?" Saix demands. Xion nods to where she can hear the voice, but it's also where the dogs' bark can be heard, looks like they have to fight their way through.

Saix starts to move that direction, but Axel stops him when he sees darkness is leaking out from his friend's right shoulder. "You're hurt." Did that hunter hit him?

"I'm fine, it looks worse than it is." Saix brushes it off, the shot only didn't hit anything vital and he has dealt with more significant wounds that this. Eyeing Xion, "Lead the way." she nods, and they begin to run towards the dogs.

Didn't take long before the pack of dogs found them. Roxas did try and summon his keyblade, but as he has no way of using it and as a fawn, neither he or Xion have the strength or any shape of weapon to defend themselves. So, they cannot do much other than run away from these rabid dogs. Axel and Saix did come to his and Xion's aid, using their antlers as weapons. They charge into the dogs, throws them, and thanks to their bigger sizes, kicks the dogs away from the two fawns.

The dogs refused to give up, though, so all the two stags can do is keeping them at bay while Xion guides them towards the cobra.

They get to a rocky area, Xion manages to climb over the loose rocks but Roxas lost his footings and would've slid back to the pack Saix is keeping at bay if not for Axel catching him by the antlers and then using them to push him over this steep and rocky area. Saix joins them not soon after. He and Axel break several rocks free, causing a landslide that makes the dogs drop back to the area below. "That won't keep them down for long." Axel voices, his friend does not answer, only moves to follow the two keyblade wielders. Axel follows his example.

"This way!" Xion calls, running as fast as she can with Roxas right beside her, and between two cliffs, they both jump. Axel and Saix follow, only for the latter to get shot, and he crashes on the other side, this time having trouble getting back up.

Xion and Roxas run over to their wounded comrade, with Roxas asking confused and afraid: "Why are they only hitting him?"

"It's because of his pelt." Axel replies as he lands beside them. "Hunters love to add a white deer to their collection." Of course, the kids don't fully understand, and there's no time to explain. He quickly scans the area before going to help his wounded comrade back on his feet. "Come on, pal, get up." Saix struggles, but he has always been stubborn which now comes to the man's advantage. He gets up but it's clear that shot took its toll.

They all duck when another shot; this one misses them by a hair and instead hits a tree right beside them.

Axel pushes Saix, making him move, his friend limps away but even as they get back into the forest. Saix stands out with those almost white color of his. And being a rare sight makes him a prime target for this hunter current chasing them. "The universe must really hate you." Axel speaks only for his friend's ears.

Saix nods in agreement and knowing these hunters of this world won't let their target in the form of a white stag get away. "Leave me." He tells Axel hard. "They are only aiming at me." And the others seriously does not need that sort of distraction in the search for the cobra.

"What? No!" Roxas argues, and agreeing with Roxas they shouldn't leave a friend behind: "We won't leave you!" Xion cries to Saix.

"I will be fine." Saix tells the two, yes these two gunshot wounds are slowing him down, but there needs a lot more before he starts to fade. "You need to find the cobra, and you can't with me slowing you down."

"Saix's right," Axel says and begins to leave, trusting that Saix is as strong as he always thought he is. This is one of the few advantages of not having a heart, for if he had been Lea in this situation. Then he would've refused just as much as Xion and Roxas are. "right now, the snake is our first priority." He jerks at the sound of the dogs, they are about to catch up to them. "No time to argue." Axel shoves the two kids the way Xion pointed before. "You just gotta trust him."

Roxas and Xion reluctantly follow Axel, leaving Saix behind, they reach the area where the cobra is awaiting them, curled around a large tree. Xion runs over to it, "Please, help us save our friend!" she begs. The cobra slowly lowers its head down to the dark grey fawn, her eyes wide in horror of its answer: no. "What? Why won't you help us?!" She demands. The cobra explains that it only will if she unlocks her true power. But Xion has no idea what her true power is!

Roxas runs over to the snake, from what Xion said, it refuses to help. "You caused this to happen!" He yells angrily up to it, "Do you want our friend to fade away?"

That depends on her. The cobra replies simply, and with those words, it flies away. In utter disbelief of this abandonment, Xion spins around and runs back down to where Saix is. Axel stops her: "No, you try and get that snake to help us out. I will go and help Saix." He tells her hard and jumps down to the area where Saix is fighting those dogs.

"But… she won't help us…" Xion begins to cry, not sure what she can do to make the cobra listen.

Roxas hates to see his friend cry like this, he feels so sorry for her and it enrages him that the snake is the cause of this. Because of it, they might lose a friend. He glares up to where the snake flew off. "Keyblade or not, I am going to beat it until it's going to help us." He growls, anger causing the fur at his neck to raise.

Xion turns to where she can hear the cobra, enraged in how she is pretty much watching Axel and Saix getting torn apart by those dogs while the owner of the gunshots is approaching. She had it with that cobra!

_'That's enough!'_ She glares up to where the cobra is, she can feel it and with her mind, Xion takes hold, forcing it to hear her words. _'Invi! You will help my friends or I will send you back to where you belong!'_ The cobra flinches, tries to resist, but Xion is too scared for her friends' safety and too angry in how it denied her request when asked nicely, so now she is forcing it to obey.

The cobra struggles but does submit to her will. It flies down to where Axel and Saix are, a powerful wind strike, and all of the dogs are blown away, then it chases the one who shot Saix off.

The two stags appear, both quite beaten up but Saix looks worse for wear, but he's is walking. "Nicely done Xion." He praises her, winching both in pain but mostly in surprise when he gets a dark grey fawn right against his chest. Xion doing the best deer vision of a hug. He can only stand there, no idea how to appropriately react on such a human reaction from what is supposed to be only an emthy replica.

Axel is no help, guy's grinning like an idiot.

Xion does step away from him when the cobra returns. Her glare fades in whatever it is telling her, it does slightly return but she avoids the snake's eyes. "I won't thank you for it…" The cobra seems to accept that, and with a strike of the tail, a portal opens. Xion casts it one look, and when it has flown off, she tells them. "This portal will lead back to Twilight Town, she said it won't harm us."

"Better leave before I have to carry Saix." Axel points out and steps into the portal, and after some disorientated light-show, he stumbles out, in a human shape into Twilight Town. Not long after Roxas, Xion and Saix follow, with the latter saying: "That's never going to happen." He's holding over the gunshot wound he took in the shoulder and Axel notes himself to help Saix get that bullet out when they get back to the castle.

"Aside from the dog part, I found this vacation pretty fun." Roxas voices and asks his three friends, "Or was I'm the only one?"

"I had fun too." Xion says, "It was fun being a deer for a day."

"Yeah, we should try that again someday." Roxas laughs, Xion nods in agreement.

"Let's get back to the castle." Axel tells the two, mostly so he can avoid saying that he didn't enjoy this vacation all because he does not have a heart to feel such things. Prefer to let the kids keep this illusion. Adding from the look Xion and Roxas give him. "Don't worry, the short trip between here and The World That Never Was won't be enough to hurt us." They nod, and they all return to the Nobody world and thus ending their single day vacation.

* * *

**Not only did this give me a chance to involve Bambi's world but also write the Sea-salt group have some innocent fun, at least until those dogs came and ruined it all, but hey, it did reveal the name of the cobra, or at least, the name of its master.**

**comments are always appreciated, let it either be your thoughts on the story itself or things I can improve on**


	10. Other side of the Board

Saix gets the Intel from the Dusks that the imposter is back, someone who got hold on their uniform but is not part of the Organization. This time, this thorn in their side is skulking around Beast's Castle.

He reports this to Xemnas, and the man tells him in that bland voice:

"Send Xion to dispose of this person. If she is to perish, there isn't much of a loss."

Saix finds himself oddly enraged by this but hides it behind a calm façade. "As you wish." He replies and leaves to hand out the mission.

When giving Xion her mission, he feels inclined to warn her, "We do not know how strong this person is. Be on your guard, and… if you can't handle it, retreat." Xion nods and heads out. Saix can only hope Xion is up to the task, she is strong and the training has made her more focused, but she is not all-powerful. Saix sights, _'Lea's right I have gone soft on her...' _He realizes and can almost laugh at the lunacy of the antisocial him is having a soft spot for a kid. Oh, if his old man could see him now...

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Xion returns late that day, having the bad news that this person defeated her. Saix can see that she seems more hurt mentally than physically, "Tell me what happened." He requests when sure no one is around, he prefers not to show this softness around the other members, as they most likely will lose any respect towards him. Only his friends are allowed to see that he's not as cold as most think he is.

Xion hesitates for a long time, the words of that male still torments her mind.

"Xion."

"He called my keyblade a sham." Xion finally tells Saix, she did not see that his eyes widened ever so slightly, more focused on the pain flooding her chest. "I'm sorry," Xion avoids his eyes, musing. "I couldn't defeat him."

Something tells him that this person Xion lost against can see what Xion truly is, not it matters much to Saix anymore. He does not consider Xion a replica of Sora's memories, for he does not see Sora in her, or in Roxas for that matter. All he can see is the girl he and Axel befriended back when they were at that age and human.

"Please, give me another chance." Xion begs, she wants to prove she can fulfill this mission. She can defeat the imposter and prove she's not a sham! Saix stares down to her, no sign of what's he's thinking. With that almost emotionless expression on his face and the calm gleam in his bluish eyes. His hand moves and it ends up on top of her head, only there he speaks: "Alright, but next time; you won't be alone." Xion is so relieved that Saix is willing to give her another chance and won't be surprised if it's Roxas, Axel, or even Saix who will accompany her to this next encounter. Knowing he does not fancy others sees him like this, Xion checks the surrounding, only with no one around, she hugs him. "Thanks Saix."

Caught off guard by that move, and never been good at showing his more tender side, not even when he was human. Saix awkwardly pats her head.

Unaware, a certain member is watching the two sharing that sweet moment from above. Xigbar's eye narrows ever so slightly at what he sees, then he snorts a small chuckle. It looks like Saix has gotten attached to poppet and turning him against them. Xigbar has taken notice of how the second-in-command seems to avoid meetings; like the strings have been cut. That's not good but… he quirks a smile, watching Saix push Xion away and becomes somewhat flustered at whatever she's saying. At least they still have a leash for their dog.

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Standing on the castle gate of the Beast's Castle, a teenage boy, dressed in the Organization black cloak. He reaches his hand out, still able to feel that keyblade that girl wielded. It hadn't felt real, more like a copy. Hence to why he called it a sham. That girl… when he looked at her, he saw Kairi's face but… it wasn't Kairi.

A person in a dark grey bodysuit with blood-red markings around the chest, hands, and legs appears at his left, transparent and with darkness surrounding his shape. This fellow aged boy looks like his best friend, with the exception that the spiky hair is black, skin paler and eyes red. That and this boy of darkness cannot get that cheerful face Sora most of the time got plastered on; instead, his companion wears an expression that screams: 'I'm going to hurt you and enjoy while doing it.'

Though this time around, the boy of darkness looks pissed.

_"What the hell was up with that thing?" _The other boy asks, that and his outburst when Riku removed the hood on that girl, shows that his companion got just as startled as he did.

"What did you see?" He asks calmly while slowly fisting his hand, as if trying to grasp the keyblade.

_"It looked like my deadbeat brother." _His friend, Vanitas crosses his arms, the glare in those red eyes intensified. "_It was fucking creepy to see him fight like my light twin and hear him speak with a female voice." _He eyes him, asking a very legit question to this situation:_ "What the hell was up with that?"_

"That's saying a lot when it comes from you." He remarks and hearing that they didn't see the same thing. It seems there's more to this… whatever she is.

_"No shit, so, what now?" _And like any other time when they encounter something Vanitas does not understand; _"I suggest we hunt it down, gives it one less thing to worry about."_

Riku is so used to the 'annihilate the problem away' that he now just brushes it off. "Let's first see what we're dealing with." He tells his dark companion and for that; Riku thinks he's going to pay another friend a visit. Knowing Vanitas thoughts about his second friend: "Now I will get information from our inside man." He knows the reaction will be amusing.

"_Great, see you tomorrow." _The dark boy remarks dryly and disappears.

He stand corrected, and rolling his eyes, Riku lets the darkness swallows him. When leaving the dark corridor, he is inside Hollow Bastion. A place that holds a lot of bad memories, but he has made better ones through his previous visits, all thanks to an unlikely but very appreciated friend of his. The castle does not have any Heartless inside, meaning the current resident has been busy.

Riku walks towards the library, knowing the one he's searching for will be— suddenly a large man, drops right beside him and Riku only manages to summon up his blade, which gets thrown out from his hand when that man slams a sort of ax right at him with a well-known strength. He yelps in pain and would've retaliated if not for the lack of darkness coming from the attacker. Instead, Riku jumps away from the man, one he recognizes from Castle Oblivion. What was the name again? Oh right. "You're Lexaeus's human, aren't you?" He asks. The man turns around to him and does not look happy to see him, not that Riku blames him. Last time they saw each other, Riku struck him down. "I'm not here to fight," Riku tells the former Nobody, pretty sure Lexaeus— or whatever he's named now, is human now, like the one he's looking for. Speaking of which: "I'm looking for Ienzo, he's still here, right?"

That caught the large man's attention. "How do you know about him?" He asks suspicious and for some reason tense up as if thinking he's a threat to the one he's looking for.

This confuses Riku, but before he can explain the man, Ienzo's voice calls from upstairs: "It's alright Aeleus, Riku is an ally." The large man dismisses his weapon but does still give him that dark stare. Riku casts the distrustful man a look as he passes him and walks upstairs to where Ienzo is. The young man walks over to him and by the looks of it, has finally found a lab coat at his size. "It's been a while Riku," Ienzo greets him and with a smirk asks, "how many trees have you walked into this time?"

Riku chuckles at the tease about the blindfold but does not answer the question. Like Ienzo, the younger boy is well aware it will just start a friendly spat between them. Aeleus frowns to why he is wearing a blindfold but does stay quiet about it. Ienzo understands why Riku has it and noticing the new returned man confused stares; Ienzo simply explains him: "Sometimes, it's too hard to look into the harsh truth." Aeleus lifts his head slightly, the eyes showing that he understands and fortunately, leaves it at that.

Riku is kinda glad some people understand the shame he feels for what he's currently doing. But enough about his own shame, Riku came here looking for answers. "I encountered something strange recently when the Organization sent one of the members after me; at first, I mistook it for a girl who could wield the keyblade." Ienzo crosses his arms but eyes gleaming that he has this one's full attention, the large man named Aeleus passes them, but does stick near like some sort of bodyguard. Riku casts that man a glance before walking closer to Ienzo as he has no wish in letting this other returned Nobody knows about the heart residing inside his. The next he speaks in a low voice, only meant for the spell caster's ears. "When I truly looked at her, that girl had Kairi's face and Vanitas described her face as his brother," Ienzo blinks at this, but that's not all. "and when I held her keyblade, it felt fake, a sham." Eyeing his older friend, one who knows so much more about the Organization than he ever will since Ienzo once was one of them. "Do you know anything about this?"

"Yes, it sounds like you have encountered one of Vexen's replicas," Ienzo replies, and muses thoughtfully mostly to himself. "but that replica wasn't supposed to gain a face, you shouldn't have seen Kairi's face— or any face other than a puppet. The replica should only have the power to wield the keyblade... for even a fake keyblade is still powerful."

That Riku can agree on, this replica's keyblade was almost as strong as a real one. "What do the Organization want with the keyblade?" Riku asks, he turns when Aeleus is the one who answers him: "The superior—" the large man stops himself, having a frown as if that superior really has betrayed his trust. "Xemnas told us all that only through Kingdom Hearts, we could regain our humanity."

_ "Sounds like your "superior" spewed out a lot of bullshit."_ Vanitas remarks, though only Riku can hear him, so Riku speaks those words— in his own manner to the two former Nobodies. "Clearly that's not the case."

Ienzo nods in agreement. He has a few theories as to why Xemnas wants keyblades. "Xemnas has always been interested in the power of hearts, but no one from the Organization has been able to wield a keyblade and collect hearts. Not before Roxas creation."

"Roxas?"

"Sora's Nobody"

Ah, so that's the name of his friend's Nobody. Riku nods and gestures for Ienzo to continue, which the young man does: "But when Sora was able to co-exist alongside his Nobody; something no one has ever done before— Xemnas must've realized the strength of Sora's heart and commanded a team to ensnare Sora in Castle Oblivion."

"So your Nobodies?..."

"No, we were sent to ensnare you." Aeleus replies from his spot, still staring suspiciously at him. "You have the darkness of Xemnas Heartless."

Okay, he can see why the Organization found him fascinating, probably more so now that he is using the power of darkness to protect Sora while his memory gets restored. But all of this does not explain why that replica looked like Kairi. "That girl— this replica, why does she look like Kairi if she was meant to copy Sora's keyblade?"

Ienzo hesitates with that answer, it's not because he is reluctant to answer, it's just… "I am uncertain why that's the case." He admits and rests his chin on his hand, musing to the blindfolded boy, "My Nobody never held much interest in Vexen's replica project. All I can say that Vexen had used a powerful memory from Sora as that replica's core."

And Riku has a bad feeling what memory that was: Kairi. It will explain why that replica has her face. "This Vexen, he was the one who created my replica?" Ienzo nods, yeah he thought that was the case. Riku still remembers that man who created his replica and since these two have returned as people. "Has he returned as human yet?"

This time Ienzo must shake his head, still sadden that there's no sign if Even will return. It worries him that perhaps; the injury his Nobody received was too great. "Unfortunately not, but we are hoping he will someday." Aeleus nods in agreement.

That's too bad, there are a few things he would've liked to ask the creator of the replicas, but what Ienzo was able to explain to him, it does help him understand what he is dealing with. Good thing these two former Nobodies have decided to ally themselves with him and his friends. "Thanks, this helped me a lot." Riku thanks Ienzo, feeling quite disturbed that the Organization has gotten themselves a replica that looks like Kairi. It was bad enough back when he had to fight a copy of himself, now he has to fight a copy of Kairi who fights like Sora.

He turns around to leave, but stops when Ienzo speaks up: "Before you go, I would like to teach you something." Riku turns to the young man, and Ienzo says: "It should help you against the stronger members of the Organization."

Aeleus frowns deeply in disapproval at Ienzo suggestion and feels like now is an excellent time to speak: "Are you certain about this?" Ienzo has explained to him how his Nobody died, why he is dealing with severe nightmares, which makes his magic act out in Ienzo's instinctual fight and flight moments. He does not want this boy around one he promised himself to protect, also... he's still sour about how Riku managed to kill his Nobody.

"We're one the same side and," Ienzo eyes the large man, one who has always been very understanding towards him, "I trust Riku." Aeleus frown did not fade the slightest but is at least not trying to stop him either. Ienzo sighs and after have asked Riku to follow, he tells the younger male in a quiet voice. "Forgive Aeleus, he's quite protective of me."

"I don't see why you need a bodyguard," Riku remarks, sure, Ienzo prefers to use his mind when it comes to conflicts, but that does not make him a weak fighter when it comes to it. Far from it, "you sure put my skills to the test."

"Flattered, but I haven't always been adept in spell casting." Ienzo smirks and explains the younger male. "Back in the day, Aeleus's Nobody often had to protect mine from danger when out on missions. Zexion," his smile drops and his eyes distant. "...didn't have a sense of when he was in danger." Ienzo does quickly shake those memories off, and when inside a room with better space, "Now, let's see how quickly you will learn this shield spell of mine." adding with a smirk to Riku. "With enough practice and magic, nothing can break through this barrier— as you clearly witness during the fight against my Nobody."

Oh, that shield spell. Yeah, does sounds like something he could defiantly could use. "Alright, tell me how to cast it." Riku replies to the other male who smirks in respond.

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**A return to the characters from Book 2 and Riku sure appreciate having people who can tell him of what is going on with the Organization. Also, I created a One-Shot story about Riku, Ienzo, Vanitas and Naminé and gives a small insight into why Ienzo knows about Vanitas. Did consider adding it to this story, but it just didn't flow with it, so I made it a separate story called "The Unlikely Group."**

**Check it out if you like, and comments are always appreciated. **


	11. The Surge

**to Novabee: thanks so much for the comment, I really appreciate it ^^ and I think you're going to like one of the future chapters when it comes to what happened in Castle Oblivion. **

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Saix got the intel that the person who defeated Xion has shown up again, this time in a world called Wonderland. He greatly considered in going himself and beat this guy to a pulp, but remembering Xion's request to try again, Saix knew that she has to come along.

As he wrote down tomorrow's missions, Saix made sure to include himself onto Xion's mission. It might catch Xemnas' attention, but a risk Saix is willing to take. He does not want Xion to be defeated or worse; killed by the imposter, not when he has re-leaned the importance of friendship and no one is going to take that from him.

Letting out a sigh as he finishes up the mission sheets for tomorrow, "My heart would be so proud." Saix muses and finds it very ironic that he has such strong illusions to care for someone else.

A chuckle from behind, Saix only bob his head slightly towards Axel as he remarks. "Wherever it might be, I'm certain your heart will be plotting something."

"Most likely from your heart's impulsive ideas." Saix throws back, Axel lets out a small chuckle and Saix recalls he would quirk a small smile as human, so that's what he did in response. Now that his mind is on memories: "It's strange how the past seems to come back." He turns the chair so he can face his old childhood friend. "It's easier to remember, to recall certain emotions."

Axel nods in agreement, "Yeah," and points out the disadvantages in remembering their lives as human, "but I could do without the baggage, sure it makes emoting easier, but I would prefer not to be reminded of everything we have lost." Saix agrees on that, he hadn't had a good sleep for months and it has nothing to do with that shadow thing stuck inside his brain. No, what stirs up his– and Axel's sleep; it's the memories about happier times... a past they never can go back to.

He has been trying to keep up the hope, that they one day will become human again, but Axel... he gave up a long time ago. Saix can see it in his eyes. Axel only keeps moving due to Lea's nature of not giving up on other people. "True, we have lost everything, and yet," He turns his gaze to the heart-shaped moon outside, however, this time, he is not wondering if his heart is up there, instead: "it looks like we have gained something as well." A groan from Axel makes him turn back, brow raised to that reaction. "What?"

Axel waves his hand dismissive, "Nothing," but a look from him makes the guy elaborate. "your words just reminded me of what Marluxia said to Sora. "to find is to lose and lose is to find." He really liked to say those words." He muses, having frown over his eyes.

Watching Axel for a moment, Saix realizes something, a change Axel never showed before Castle Oblivion. "Don't come and tell me you disliked the guy." Sure, Marluxia could be annoying to deal with due to his superiority complex, but he was at least soft-spoken and not in people's face like Larxene was.

"Dislike?" Axel smirks, also finding the irony in this. "Please, we can't feel such a thing."

"Then what's with the face?" Saix retorts back, not sure why, but he gets sharp flashbacks of how to pretend amusement in the confusion Axel now shows.

Axel blinks, then slowly he crosses his arms, and Saix lets him ponder why he made such a reaction. Saix too has taken notice he also needs a moment to wonder why he got memories about certain responses, it hasn't happened since they were still considered kids, and that feels like such a long time ago. Uncrossing his arms, Axel admits. "I don't know why, but ever since my confrontation with him in Castle Oblivion– nah," He shakes his head, now smiling again. "I probably just remember how infuriating it is to get my butt kicked. He was stronger than I anticipated, I admit that."

Saix rolls his eyes, a reaction he has become very familiar with since he and Axel made up and became friends again. "That's what you get for pulling your punches." Something Isa often said when Lea went to fight some of the other kids, which most of the time ended up with him having to save his butt and both ending up dealing with lots of bruises.

"Oh, is that the thanks I get from all my hard work?" Axel retorts back, and he straight out deserves this one:

"Of course, I appreciate your hard work. I love nothing but work all night to smooth out the mess you did during the mission."

"Aw, shut it Isa!"

Saix glances over to his now pouting friend, their eyes meet and next, they both start laughing. Right that moment, it didn't matter they lacked a heart, the memory from their shared past is enough.

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The next day, Xion is one of the first to come for a mission, he hands her the sheet and after she has read it, she looks up to him with wide eyes. It still impresses him in how well Xion can emote emotions, quite intriguing indeed. "You'll need to wait until the others have left." He informs her. Xion nods and takes a seat at one of the couches. The others arrive and Saix sends them off, Roxas got a plain heart collection duty and Axel a recon at the Coliseum. With everyone sent off, Saix turns to Xion and nods that now they can go. She gets up from the couch and both walk through the portal he opened. They arrive in Wonderland, inside a bizarre hallway, Saix didn't pay it much mind, more focused on the mission at hand. He turns to Xion, she has been here twice before and thus knows the layout of this area better than him. "You know this place, so you will take the lead."

"Alright," Xion nods and starts walking. They arrive inside a room and from what both Roxas and she figured out during their missions here, she steps over to the table, explaining Saix: "We need to drink at this bottle if wishes to get past this area." She takes the red bottle, takes a sip, and she shrinks down in size. Saix stares a moment down to her before doing the same, not at all having the surprised reaction she got back when she did this the first time.

Xion leads Saix to the gardens past the doorway, at the garden, Xion explains while pointing at the humanoid cards guarding the two other paths of this area. "They won't let one get past, so only this way," She nods to the card free doorway. "is open to us." Saix nods and again follows her, they arrive in another garden, where there is a bunch of Heartless. Xion summons her keyblade and begins to attack, at first Saix does not help, but his weapon did arrive and utterly destroys the Heartless when she got a bit crowded. She nods thankfully to him, then turns when sensing they are not alone. At the end of this forest area, Xion spots another dressed like them, but she knows this is the one she lost against, "There!" she cries and starts chasing him.

Resisting a strange urge to call Xion to wait, Saix takes pursuit after someone not much older than Roxas and Xion, though this person is taller than the two kids and by Xion's report, the imposter is male. The imposter notices them and makes the run for it, they do catch up at a garden with a long table filled with teacups. Xion charges in for an attack, the imposter blocks with a blade formed out of darkness and throws her back. Xion attacks swiftly again, and their blades clash a few times before the male gets a hit in.

Xion's cry of pain makes something stir in Saix, at first he mistakes it for the Berserk mode, but then he realizes this is different as the phantom anger is not there and in that split second, his whole body felt like he got kicked with a bucket of adrenaline. This troubles Saix, usually he can control when he goes into Berserk mode, but this is not it and has no idea what activates what he presumes is a new mode. Only that it happened when Xion got hurt.

'_This has to end now._' he thinks, for who knows what he will do if he loses control in such close quarters. Saix summons his claymore and goes in for the attack, making sure he is between the hooded boy and Xion. The boy, from what little he can see underneath the hood, is scanning him, probably trying to figure out how to defeat him. Saix is not surprised as he is doing the exact same.

The brief scuttle between him and Xion, Saix observed that this one has speed and seems to use it for quick but powerful strikes. He attacks the young man who does block but looks to have trouble keeping the guard up after a hit from the claymore, Saix figures that mean he is stronger of the two. The imposter is quick to avoid his strikes and instead try and hit him with magic. '_Smart move.' _Saix muses to himself, but that does not stop him from trying to hit the kid. Their weapons do clash a few times when the imposter cannot dodge fast enough, Saix observes that this boy seems he has been taught how to use a sword. He does not wield that blade clumsily and fully aware of its reach, something both Xion and Roxas still haven't learned. Saix also takes notice that the imposter is faster than him and mixing that with whatever training he's gone through, Saix notes himself of not let his guard down around this one.

Xion joins the fight and the young man decides to retreat. Xion catches up but right before her keyblade made an impact on him, the older boy fires a ball of electricity point-blank at her. Xion cries in pain and gets thrown to the table, destroying several of the cups. She does not get up, barely moving.

Seeing this, the world feels to be slowing down, he can feel it coming, this surge of sheer might. It's demanding to be let loose, he cannot fight it and the power takes over his body. Saix eyes start to glow, but unlike Berserk, his scar does not turn bigger and jagged; rage is not consuming his sense of logic, though he is trapped in a sheer determination to defeat that person. A bluish aura surrounds his body and turning to the imposter, mind never been more clear. Saix grabs his weapon and like it is light as a feather, he hurls it at the hooded one. His weapon utterly destroys the wall it hit at the house, the imposter dodges but only barely. Saix is at the one with what feels like only a single step, he grabs the imposter around the collar and quickly slams him to the ground. The face gets revealed, Saix does not recognize the face, but he can see this boy is startled of his power. To be honest, he too is confused about what is going on with him. This surge is putting a massive strain on his body, he can feel it's breaking down, and only a matter of time before his body cannot handle this burst of strength. The imposter gets a hand free and fires a dark ball right at him. Saix saw it coming and easily dodges it, for him, everything seems to go in slow motion. He turns back to the imposter, and summons his claymore, preparing himself to strike.

That reaction from this blue-haired man took Riku more than off guard, never before has one of these guys lost their cool nor shown any form of care for one another. But this guy did and Riku knows he will be killed if he does not get away _right now!_ This man uses a strange power that enhances not only his strength to a stupid level but speed and reaction time as well. It's too powerful.

"_Use the keyblade!" _

The Nobody strikes out with that claymore of his and Riku puts up a shield but it breaks at the sheer might coming from this Nobody that is surrounded by that blue mist-like effect, Riku cries in pain at one of the spikes hitting him over the arm.

_"Riku, use the fucking keyblade!" _

'_Shut up Vanitas, I'm trying to survive here!' _Riku retorts back, tries to jump away, but with that inhuman speed, the Nobody catches him and only a quick block by Soul Eater saves him from getting all of his ribs broken. The hit from that claymore is, however, more than strong enough to send him flying.

_'What kind of power is this?'_ Riku wonders, what makes this man so strong?

"_My trick, now!"_

Not questioning that, Riku uses a dark portal to do quick teleportation and it saves him from getting hit by that claymore. He appears behind the Nobody and does get a strike in, but faster than anticipated, the Nobody spins around, grabs his arm and would most likely have broken it if he hadn't jumped back right that second. '_Dang it!' _Riku fires a fireball at the Nobody, it is enough to save him from having to limp back to Ienzo and get an earful for picking "unnecessarily fights." It makes the Nobody backs off, but not for long for right after the blue-haired man shifted his weapon's position, the Nobody charges in, those glowing eyes locked onto him and Riku knows neither a shield nor a guard will save him from this guy's attacks.

_"Screw the shield, freeze this guy!" _

_ 'Right!' _Riku nods and uses all of his magic on the blizzaga spell, freezing the deadly Nobody in his place but it won't hold for long. Already the ice is cracking. No need for Vanitas to tell him he should get the hell away from here; he can see that fine himself. Riku opens a portal and flees the scene. When away, Riku briefly removes his hand over the large slash wound he got over the other arm. "Better stay clear of that one…" He muses, especially if this replica is around. That blue-haired Nobody went into that stage when the replica got hurt. The dark heart manifests himself before him, and Riku stops when Vanitas lunges at him, only to phase right through. "What are you doing?" He asks, surely it wasn't an attempt for possessions. He knows that sense far too well.

Vanitas tries again, but again, he cannot do it, all thanks to not having a physical body. "_What does it look like, idiot?! I'm trying to strangle you!"_ He replies furious at how close of a call that was, all because Riku didn't want to summon his keyblade! Said silver-haired boy stares deadpan as he continually tries to strangle him for his stupidity.

"I told you, I can't summon—"

"_Don't give me that shit!" _He interrupts Riku's sorry excuse for not trying._ "You have a keyblade connected to your heart!" _Pointing at where the portal was a moment ago,_ "How you acted back there, it reminded me TOO MUCH of that rock brained moron!" _and that infuriates Vanitas to be reminded that he is tagging along with Terra's legacy, but they sure hell got the stupidity stigma in common! _"I don't give a crap if it was pride, shame, or what the hell you think it is. Next time: Summon. The. KEYBLADE!" _

Wow, never before has this guy been lecturing him. No idea what caused it, but Riku can see that this really got his dark-hearted friend upset. "You really thought I was going to die there." Vanitas responds with a glare and whole body tense as if he is seconds from attacking. It takes him a moment but Riku realizes that this is how the dark boy shows that he had been worried, maybe even scared. And now that Riku looks at himself, the beating he took. Yeah, he can see why. "You're right, I should've summoned it." He lifts his hand, the sense of holding a keyblade can still be felt, and yet... he hasn't tried to summon the– his keyblade. Is it because he fears that it won't come if he tries, proving that he is indeed not worthy? Or is it out of some sort of pride? He is honestly not sure. Dropping his hand, Riku turns to the other boy. "Sorry I scared you."

Vanitas snorts, _"The hell I was scared," _he crosses his arms, avoiding eye contact._ "but if someone kills your ass, you're dragging me with you." _

"Right." Riku smiles faintly, not really believing that's was Vanitas' reason for being this angry at him. It is sort of nice to see that even this guy wants to see him all right. "Thanks."

"_Go back to Castle Oblivion so I can strangle you!" _Vanitas snaps back, glaring daggers at him, yet it felt like the bite is missing.

Riku chuckles and moves on, wanting to put some distance between him and the Organization. He's going to need some time to recover from this fight.

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With the imposter gone, Saix can finally break free from this new mode of his. Pain and exhausting hit him like a train and he collapses onto the ground, coughing up blood. _'If he hasn't left, this power might've killed me...'_

It's a scary thought, and Saix knows that this new mode is going to stay, so he better figure out the trigger before he gets into a battle where the enemy won't flee after a minute. With trembling hands, Saix grabs a hi-potion and pours it down. It heals some of the injuries this new Berserk mode caused, but there's nothing he can do about the exhausting and aches it caused him. Saix thinks he will call it Surge mode, for it sure hell felt like it. Still, in pain from the strain he went through and breathing heavily, Saix gets back on his feet and walks over to where Xion is, she's still out cold. He notices she's wounded from that magical attack the imposter th— he feels the Surge stirring. Saix freezes up, struggling to keep it down, but it's hard when his eyes are on the wounded Xion. Saix closes his eyes, taking deep breaths as Isa did when he would get too upset, forcing himself to calm down. It's harder compared to when he needs to calm down from a Berserk, now it's like he cannot bring himself to let go of whatever trigger this power. Though slowly, he does manage to make the Surge fade away. Still quite in a shocked stupor, Saix picks Xion up and returns back to base.

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As expected, Roxas didn't take the news that Xion is unconscious very well and left to check up on her. Before Axel can do the same, Saix pulls him aside, "I need your help." he tells his friend. "My Berserk has changed, and unless I learn how to control it. It will kill me."

Axel eyes wide of what Saix had said, he wants to know when Saix's rampaging state changed, but that's not really important. What is important is that this new power trip can kill his friend, and something tells him that those injuries aren't from the imposter. "Whenever you're ready." He replies Saix, and do hope this mode is not as uncontrollable as Berserk. He rather not be torn to shreds by it like some kind of Heartless.

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**The whole scene between Riku and Vanitas is one I got from a conversation I had with one on DeviantART, it was so fun that I just had to include it.**

**Comments are always appreciated, I like to know your thoughts about this story. **


	12. Power to protect

In the Halls of Empty Melodies, Axel and Saix are sparring against another, it does throw Axel back to when they were younger, still fledging to the Organization. Back in those days, they used to spar as both wanted to be stronger, prove they could beat the Heartless, and perhaps even the senior staff. A lot of things have changed since then, like the training is more serious and they aren't kids anymore. One thing is the same, though: Axel still can't beat his friend.

A powerful strike from the claymore and Axel ends onto the floor, bruised and struggling for air. Looking up to Saix, who also is breathing heavily. "I almost beat you this time."

Axel has become stronger since the last time they did this, when was it again? Saix can't really remember, before the whole scar incident at least. "Never going to happen." He tells the floored man, but this training isn't to beat other up but to teach him how to control this Surge. Saix knells down, using his weapon as a sort of support, "As much as I love beating you to a pulp—" Axel groans loudly and throws himself into a lying position on the grey floor. Ignoring that childish behavior. "I'm no closer to figuring out this new power of mine." Saix points out, still pondering why he got this new take of his power and how come it only came now?

Not moving from his spot, Axel stares up to the tall ceiling of this training area, reviewing Saix explanation on this new power of his. It for some reason sounds familiar, but he cannot figure out why. "You went into it when the imposter knocked Xion out, right?" Saix nods, "But you didn't feel angry?"

"I can't feel anger, no heart, remember." Saix points out, Axel gives him a look. Oh alright, he guesses he can play along. Letting out a sigh, "If I do consider these illusion emotions from my memories, I suppose I did feel some anger, but…" eyes grow distance and Saix mind tries to grasp the name of that emotion he felt right when the Surge kicked in. "It wasn't like when I go Berserk, I was in control, focused on my task. Like adrenaline was surging through my entire body. Except it was clearly magic, and it gave me the strength I needed."

Hm, that makes Axel wonder... Sheesh, this is going to suck for him, and be a literal pain, but if what he thinks is true, then... "I got an idea," Axel says, gets up and teleports off, he appears at the Grey Area and tells the Moogle having set up shop here. "Get me your best elixir." For if he stands correct in what triggers this new power of Saix, then he sure hell is going to need it.

The Moogle pulls out a box with elixirs, "These are fresh and have best healing properties, kopo."

Axel checks the prize, internally groans at how much they cost, but better safe than sorry. He grabs two and throws the munny at the Moogle. He chunks them in his pocket, scans the area and spots Xaldin, one of the members he knows won't hold back. Axel did at first merely consider using a bunch of Dusks, but doubts Saix will consider them much of a threat. "Yo, Xaldin, could I ask a favor from you?" He waves to the scowling man.

Xaldin turns to the fire-wielding member, groaning internally of what this former rascal wants from him. "It better be worth my time." He replies coldly, raising a brow in the cheeky, and yet, deadly serious look Axel gives him, saying: "Oh I think it will be more than worth your time." That got Xaldin's full attention and he listens to what Axel is asking of him.

In the training hall, Saix is standing a bit awkwardly, waiting for Axel to return and explain that idea of his.

The sound of a dark portal makes him look up, he spots Axel and… Xaldin? Saix raises a brow, wondering what one of the senior members are doing here, his brow raises further when Xaldin summons his six spears and starts attacking Axel. This feels very much like it is staged, so Saix is not really too worried. He does still keep a sharp eye out as Xaldin is known for his harshness when he's sparring with people. That is to be expected, Xaldin used to be a guard back when he was human and even with a heart, the spear-wielding man wasn't known for his patience, least when it comes to— a sudden and now that he thinks about it; a very funny thought strikes him. Dilan was most often the one who caught Isa and Lea back in the day, and now the former guard is taking orders from the brat he used to throw out. _'Oh the irony.' _The universe sure has a twisted sense of humor.

Axel leaps over the edge throw his flaming chakrams at Xaldin who deflects them with his wind magic, the fire wielder lands on the floor and jumps away from the four spears that got plunged straight at him.

"What are you doing?" Saix asks calmly, yeah, he knows this is staged, but it won't make it less real. Axel gives him a smirk, does drop instantly when two of the spears hit him in the chest and shoulder.

He knew this would come, and Saix better makes this sacrifice worth it. Saix eyes wide, then jerks as if in pain, a blue aura is appearing around of him, one Axel has seen as Lea. Axel smirks weakly, '_I knew it_' then passes out.

Retrieving the spears, Axel drops to the floor, blood and darkness falling out from the two pieced wounds. Axel did tell him not to hold back, so if he dies, then that's his fault. Xaldin steps over and with a spear charged with his wind magic, strikes after the barely moving redhead. His attack gets stopped by Saix, Xaldin looks up and his eyes meet the younger ones glowing eyes, the Berserker is out. Xaldin summons his remaining spears and throws them at Saix; only one of them hits as the wielder of the moon steps away with incredible speed. This takes Xaldin by surprise; he has fought Saix through training many times and knows the man has no control when in his Berserk stage. He shouldn't have been able to dodge the spears like that.

He attacks Saix, and the man retaliates by lunging at him, breaking through any spear as if they were sticks. Xaldin gets thrown across the room from the hit of that claymore, getting back up. Xaldin has made a few observations; Saix is in full control and— the purple eyes land on the wounded Axel, he notices Saix is standing before him. Ah, now he sees why Axel wanted this, "It seems you can only activate this power when people close to your lost heart gets hurt." he speaks to Saix, the Nobody of a stubborn brat his own human has thrown out from the castle more times than he likes to count. "Let's see how powerful this need to protect is." He smiles and won't hesitate to use this weakness against the second-in-command. He feints an attack on Saix, then goes straight for Axel.

This faint from Xaldin, seeing him go after Axel, it fuels the power going through his body. Putting this into a strike, the claymore gets surrounded by a blue aura and Saix slams Xaldin so hard down that the whole room shakes. He's not done, though, for Xaldin has dared to go after HIS friend! Saix grabs the older man's arm and easily breaks it. Xaldin grunts in pain, teleports away and hurls his six spears at him. Saix blocks two, doges one and ignores the slashes he got from the remaining. With a roar, he throws his own weapon right at Xaldin, right this moment does not care about rank, all that matters is keeping Xaldin from hurting his friend further. The claymore creates a large shockwave, breaking the floor and when the dust settles. Xaldin knells onto the floor, holding over some of his many wounds, by the looks of it; he is one hit away from fading. The threat is over, and the Surge releases its grip over him. Saix face twists in pain and he drops to the floor, coughing up blood. Once again, he feels the high price this mode demands from his body when used.

A chuckle makes him look up. Xaldin has gotten up and limps over by using one of his spears as support.

"Stick to the Berserk boy, protecting others only will end with your demise." Gesturing at how this new kind of the moon power Saix used has torn the body almost to shreds, "If you haven't been part of the Organization, I would've used this weakness against you." and with that, Xaldin walks off. He refuses to admit that the only thing there saved him from dying at Saix hand was because the second-in-command stopped his assault.

Protecting? That's the trigger to this power? Saix is not sure what to think of—Lea! He hurries over to Axel, helps him up and before he can even think about getting him to Vexen's old laboratory in an attempt to find something that might patch him up. Axel starts chuckling and with a shaking hand, grabs an elixir. "I thought I recognized it." He chucks down the healing potion and the bleeding stops. Won't replenish the blood nor the darkness keeping their bodies together, though. Saix stares at his friend in disbelief, if he wasn't wounded, then he would've knocked his teeth out. "Don't ever do that again!" He yells at Axel, grabbing his blood-stained cloak. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I thought you didn't have a heart." Axel grins, finding it amusing to see such a strong reaction from the usual cool-headed Saix.

"That's beside the point, if you do this again, I will personally kill your stupid ass!" Saix shouts at him, and Axel has the gall to laugh at him. Annoyed Saix grumbles and takes a seat, using his idiot friend as a backrest. "Remind me again why I deal with your obnoxious tendencies?"

"I could ask the same about your sarcastic insults." Axel fires back, Saix huffs, but does not come with any retort. Axel grabs the other elixir and hands it to his friend.

Drinking the potion, Saix realizes the side comment Axel said: "You said you recognized this mode?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Axel nods that he did indeed. "when the Heartless attacked, right…" Heart or not, it's still painful to think about. "Right before the darkness took me, you got this same bluish glow."

Really? Saix does not really recall that day, he only remembers how distraught he was at watching everything he cared about, being torn away. That and standing face to face before Xemnas Somebody, he still gets the chills in the look that man gave him. "Not that it matters much, Xaldin got a point. I can't use this power; the strength to protect."

"Why's that? You wiped the floor with him." Axel argues, he says that the Surge is stronger than Berserk, especially when Saix does not loose his goddamn mind.

Maybe, but this power has a very high prize. Saix lifts his still shaking hands from the Surge, "My body cannot handle this power. Every time I use it, it tears me apart. Leaving me weak and wounded after it fades. No," he fists his hands. "I should stick to Berserk; at least there, the only thing I lose is self-control."

Axel is quiet. He wants to tell Saix that he doesn't like seeing him become an uncontrollable rage monster, but he can't, nor beg him sticking to the Surge mode. Axel can't ask Saix to tear himself apart every time he uses the moon's power. He wonders if it's a family trait, Axel do recall Isa's old man could do more or less the same, except his body never was surrounded by that blue aura. Instead, it was that cool sword … hold up. "I think you're using it the wrong way." Saix gives him a look and Axel explains the thought that hit him. "You're saying your body cannot handle this power? Well, what if you transfer it somewhere else?" He summons one of his chakrams and lets his fire surround it. "Like I do with my fire magic."

"I already do that," Saix gestures at the claymore, still deeply embedded into the destroyed floor, the long sharp blades are gone, only will arrive when he uses the moon's powers. Axel gives him that look that he won't leave him alone before he tries. Groaning, "Fine…" Saix gets up, grabs his weapon and focus his mind on the need to protect. The Surge stirs, but it feels… well out of juice. "Strange,"

That's new. "I think I have run out." He calls back to Axel, who laughs and calls back: "Then charge it up!" Saix is about to retort he does not know how, but in last second, remembers where he draws his powers from. _'Now, I just feel stupid…'_

Saix turns to the large windows and to the heart-shaped moon in the sky, unlike when he had the yellow eyes, the moon of Kingdom Hearts does not power him like before, but it still does to some extent. He reaches out to the moon, calling for it to lend him its power. It takes a moment, but he can feel his strength returning and thus, the ability to make either Berserk or the Surge. "I call on the strength of the moon." He speaks calmly, now knowing what activates it, it's easier to control. His hands get surrounded by that bluish aura, his body strengthens and without having some of his friends wounded, he can control this raw power better. Saix grabs the claymore, the star-like blades appear in effect. He focuses more on the Surge into the weapon, and it gets surrounded by the same aura he had around his body before. It does spare his body but doubts it will make much of a difference when he uses its full power, Lunatic wasn't built for this kind of magical transfer. Hm, maybe he should get one more suited for the Surge— hold up a minute.

Saix's mind goes back to when he was Isa, back to the few times his old man would pick up a sword. '_Why didn't I realize it before.' _His grandmother always said that magic runs strong on that side of the family. The moon's power, it's a family trait! And so is the weapon his father wielded. "Lea, do you remember my old man's sword?" Saix calls to his still sitting friend.

"The cool looking one we weren't allowed to touch?" Saix nods and still not moving from his spot, "Yeah, I remember, but" eyeing his friend a bit confused. "what about it?" Saix gives him a look and it hits Axel, "Ohhh, well," he gestures outward and with a nod, Saix leaves by portal. Hopefully, that old sword is still there.

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Saix returns back home, it feels weird to walk inside Isa's home and feeling nothing about other than what he thinks he should be feeling. The place is a mess, and most of the valuable items have been cleaned out. Not really a surprise, the survivors of Hollow Bastion must've scrounged the houses for anything they could sell. Hopefully, they didn't get what he is after. Saix heads to the room where his father held this special claymore and ghost sense of relief when he sees that Nobility Crystal is still in its case. Does looks like people have been trying to get the case open with all the scratches it got and Saix doubts even a full-blown Berserk attack can break the case. Saix walks over and stares down to the claymore behind this case without a lock. "Now, how to get you out?" He muses, not recalling the trick on how to open the case. His father just opened it. Saix puts his hand on the case and for a moment, he feels the moon's power in him flare-up. It made his eyes glow, though only for a second.

'click' and the case opens. Saix stares at the now open case, hesitates but takes Nobility Crystal out. Holding it in his hand, Saix gets a weird sense. Is it because he still thinks it belongs to his father, or does some part of him know that this sword is an heirloom and now, it belongs to him? Not sure, but whatever the case, Nobility Crystal might hold the answer in how to manage the Surge.

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Saix returns to the castle and the Hall of Empty Melodies where Axel is waiting for him. "Let's see if this power really runs in the family blood." He speaks to Axel, grabs the large sword and activates the Surge, the sword reacts on it instantly and draws the moon's power into it, making the three gems glow faintly. A quick look at this, before he swings the claymore slowly. A blue aura surrounds the claymore and a small wave of his moon magic flies through the hall. Saix knows that if he really wanted, that small and harmless wave could become a devastating attack. '_The Surge and my Berserk has that in common.' _ Saix muses to himself, but that attack does arrive from the same source, so no surprise there.

Seeing the same reaction as when Saix's old man showed off the sword all those years ago. "Looks like it is." Axel remarks.

Now he knows he can releases the Surge outward and perhaps one day, with enough training; can use its full potential. Dismissing the power, though, to his surprise, it looks like Nobility Crystal can store power as the gems in the sword continue to shine. That's quite interesting and might come in handy. "I misjudged you, only about half of your ideas are laughable." and sheathes both Lunatic and Nobility Crystal back into the pocket of darkness every Nobody store their weapons.

"Ah, give me some slack Isa!" Axel throws his hands up into the air. "You wouldn't have come half this far if not for me."

Put that on a silver platter. "No, I would've reached the goal by now." Saix throws back, Axel gives him 'are you kidding me?' look, and Saix chuckles, leaving his friend to pout. Glancing down to his still shaking hand._ 'The power to protect, huh?'_

No wonder why he didn't recognize it at the start, he hadn't been protecting anyone after he got scarred. And although he is still far from having full control over the Surge, well, now he knows what his moon magic really should've been.

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**Hm, wonder how long it will take Xaldin to heal up after that beatdown he took? At least it wouldn't have hurt his pride as much it would when Sora kicked his ass.**

**Saix new sword Nobility Crystal is one I created for him not long after I joined the KH fandom back in the day. I have the design of the sword on my DeviantArt page and so glad I can reuse it in this series. I really like that sword.**

**I am a bit disappointed the Nobodies do not get as much screen-time as I would've wanted, hence why I try to make them interact with the sea-salt fam as much as possible. Without breaking the flow to the story, of course. **


	13. Gamble of the Keeper

**Now it's time to see the return of one from the Book 1 story. And the introduction of another OC creature of mine. Will say, I had fun writing this chapter.**

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Shuffling his cards, Luxord smiles to his companion, "I have been wondering when you would remember to attend, I wager you took a few changes?" he puts the cards down, and his guest takes some of them, starting their little game.

"Hey, don't blame me. I had to sacrifice… what do you call it? The ace of the cards?" The hooded guest replies and looks at the cards in his hand.

Luxord snorts with a smile of what his companion said, at least he's catching up, "So you lost yours too?" he asks.

"Sort of, I left it behind in Olympus. See how it's going to change things, still has the other one," The hooded while sorting his own cards. "but this whole heart issue is not really making it easy..."

Luxord nods, he can see where his guest is coming from. A lot has been lost after his 'heart' has been ripped out from his grasp and caused him to slowly lose himself. "I have been playing with only a half set, lady luck is not yet on my side." Puts down a card and takes two from the deck, admitting, "and my deck is starting to run out." It's not a pleasured feeling to be honest, but there's nothing he can do about it.

"Tell me about it…" The hooded sighs and puts down two of the cards. "I do not look forward to where things are going." Luxord eyes him curiously, and the hooded makes a small jump in baffled laugher. "What's this? you actually want to know what the future brings?"

Luxord leans back, smirking to his companion, "Now where would the fun be in that? No competition worth playing if you already know the outcome of the game." he puts down all of his cards and flips them with a single move. He blinks when his opponent takes the last card before it is revealed.

"Then what about this?"

His companion flips the card, revealing it to be a Jack of spades. Luxord titles his head slightly in wonder, then smiles, "Ah, a wild card is coming to the game." he takes the card.

"Don't let him catch up, or— as you would say it; the hand is lost." Michi warns him cheerfully, pulls out an orb that looks to have parts of space put inside, and with a 'see you' wave, disappears into a bit strange looking portal.

Shifting this card around his fingers, Luxord rests his chin thoughtfully on the other palm. "Now this is getting interesting, and that begs the question." He stops playing with it and watches the Jack of spades card, smiling, "How much do I dare onto this bet?"

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Leaving Xion's room, troubled she hasn't gained consciousness, Roxas heads to the Grey Room to head out on a mission. He does not really hear what Saix has to say, merely nods and heads into the portal for his mission. Arriving, he is greeted by Luxord, who seems quite cheerful to have gotten a mission in Wonderland. "I wager we make a good team in this grand game of defeating the Trickmaster and ridding this world of the shadow globes." The Gambler of Fate waves his hand out to the dark city outside. "If not, then we both have put too much in our current hands."

Roxas does often have trouble following this member's way of thinking, mostly as he still hasn't learned the rules of poker Luxord likes to play so much. But what he did understand from the man; "Two things in one mission?" He asks surprised as he and the other humanoid Nobody heads to the world for their mission.

"With half of our members gone, we only have half of the cards to play with, and one of the Ace in the hole missing: now that Xion is out of action." Luxord replies, still with that carefree smile of his.

Roxas's mind wanders to Xion being unconscious, leaving only him being able to gather hearts. He takes he's the 'ace' Luxord speaks about. He also overhead Saix grumble to Axel about the extra pressure he's getting from Xemnas, but Roxas hadn't paid it much mind as he was busier worrying over Xion.

"Now, shall we, young one?" Luxord asks, waving for Roxas to take the lead.

Breaking the train of thoughts about Xion, Roxas first now realizes they have arrived in Wonderland, a bit embarrassed, he nods. "Right." and begins to walk down this strange hallway. He has been here before on heart collection mission, so he knows about the shrinking potion. Not sure of Luxord knows, so he explains the trick and drinks the potion. The other member follows suit and when small enough to pass the usual sleeping door: "When suddenly confronted with a crisis… the moment you made your decisions… may have a big impact upon our destiny." Luxord speaks in a very mysterious manner, but all it did is making Roxas confused. Makes him wonder if the man just likes to be dramatic. Roxas opens the door and past it they find a garden, and due to their sizes, firmly covered by the plants. Roxas looks up and a Heartless flies over them, but they are too small and too hidden for it to notice them. No matter, there are Heartless around also in their current size. Spotting one more suited for this size, Roxas summons his keyblade, "There!" and chases after it.

Luxord does not follow; the sound of big and heavy footsteps has caught his attention. To then get the biggest shock a Nobody now can feel when something gigantic appears only centimeters before his face, the owner completely unaware of the tiny Nobody. The gigantic— which could've been mistaken for a very green cliff, moves and the foot disappears back into this garden-like forest. Still frozen from almost have been stepped on, Luxord manages to chuckle weakly. "Oh, how absurd this challenge turned out… it seems I have been gambling too much on my current hand…" First there he notices that Roxas has run off, right, better find the boy and focus on the mission.

Finishing off the few Heartless, Roxas scans the area. Still, there's no sight of whatever Heartless the mission is about, nor these shadow globs. "Hey Luxord, where are—" He notices Luxord is gone, Roxas looks around, about to call, but forgets about Luxord when the ground starts to tremble, startling Roxas and he jumps when something green and huge appears a couple of meters from him, leaving behind a crater. Looking up, Roxas eyes wide in seeing a humongous creature, long neck and tail, stocky body and what made that crater was one of its feet. This creature, having sort of golden plates down its head, top of the back and partly on the tail, tree-roots surrounding parts of its huge body, partly covering the golden marks covering its green body. This creature makes a loud, mournful cry and turns, revealing a blue sigil on its hind legs. Roxas eyes wide, recognizing that mark, "It's like the kangaroo and snake!" this is one of them! The huge creature stomps away, to then suddenly disappear into nothingness. Roxas stares of where it was a moment ago, not entirely sure if he saw that right. "Whaaat….?"

"Hm, looks like we got another player in this game." Luxord remarks, making the young keyblade wielder jumps, he picks out one of his cards. "And he does not even know he's playing."

Getting over the surprise that Luxord has snuck up on him. Roxas eyes the spot where the creature disappeared. "I have met others like it. They seem to be friendly enough." Luxord eyes him with a strange gleam in his eyes, saying: "Oh really? You have a better hand than expected, Roxas." Not sure what that meant, all he knows that this huge creature does not seem aware of them, so better be wary; otherwise it might step on them.

heading further into the gardens, Roxas wonders out loud, "What are shadow globs?" He hasn't been on a mission dealing with a Heartless going by that name before. "What kind of Heartless are they?"

Chuckling, Luxord shows Roxas a card that has the picture of a Shadow Glob. "Not a Heartless, they're clumps of darkness."

Blinking at what this picture is showing; it looks to be a blob of a dark portal and what at Luxord said. "Clumps of darkness?" He asks the other man.

"If they are left alone for too long. They will obstruct our process of collecting hearts, being a gateway between the realm of light and darkness." Luxord explains and scans their current surroundings, "However, as far as I can tell, there aren't any on this playing field." he turns back to Roxas. "Let us search somewhere else."

Alright, so leaving the forest, they come to a new area Roxas hasn't been in before. Not far off, there is a small straw roof house. He looks up to Luxord when the man remarks, "Shadow Globs are not necessarily restricted to the outside." So by the man's suggestion, they head inside. Roxas does not feel particularly comfortably sneaking into someone else's house, makes him feel like back when he accidentally mistook Larxene's room for his own. Unfortunately for him, Larxene was a short-tempered woman and he should consider himself lucky to have survived that small mistake. "Is it really okay to go through someone's house like this?" Roxas asks, sweat-dropping in seeing that Luxord is already full ahead doing just that.

Picking up a small bowl with cookies that all pretty much say the same of being eaten, "Hm, this feels like a bet of chance. Now the question…" he takes one of the cookies. "if lady luck is on our side or not?"

"We might gain our normal size…" Roxas muses, still uncomfortable about intruding into this house. Luxord takes a bite and he did change size, but… well, he ended up getting smaller. The man looks so almost depressive at have lost this luck he keeps talking about. Feeling bad in watching the gambler like this, Roxas reaches out for one of the other cookies. "Um, maybe one of the others will—"

"Mary-Anne! Are you there?!" Someone calls, making the taller boy and mole sized man turn to the door.

Roxas panicked, not got a clue how to get out of this situation, for he can't whack the owner of the house with his keyblade! The owner appears, proving to be the same rabbit he lost sight off the last time he was here. "It's the white rabbit!" He exclaims.

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Okay, this might explain why he was told to avoid the inhabitants of each world he comes to, for that white rabbit was not happy at all to see them and the next thing he knew. He got captured by those humanoid cards.

Now inside a cage, Roxas is not entirely sure how to get out from this new problem, "A reckless gamble," Luxord says calmly from his hiding spot which is his hood. Roxas glances to the current small man, sort of glad those card people didn't notice him. Luxord then shifts Roxas's attention away from the rabbit, who is putting all kinds of blame on them, over to a large woman who is dressed in a red and black dress in where the two colors make the shape of hearts. "but, on the other hand, it was a lucky move. Look there." following Luxord finger, Roxas looks past the angry woman, a castle, black as night and… are the walls moving? "Is that?"

Luxord nods, "It looks like it's been made out of a large collection of Shadow Globs." Eyeing the irate queen.

"The queen has a dark taste." Said queen then turns to one of the card soldiers, shouting loudly at them: "Get me a ball!" One of them quickly grabs a porcupine and puts it before the queen, who uses a flamingo as her cricket bat. She misses by a large margin, but the porcupine still rolls and makes sure to get through every card arch. Then everyone claps. "It seems like everything here is done to please that queen." Luxord observes and must agree with Roxas's somewhat disgusted reaction.

Out from the corner of his eye, Luxord notices a key, by the shape and size, it's the one for Roxas cage. He leaves his spot and easily gets past the bars. "Being small has its advantages," He reluctantly remarks but does quickly get over it and tells the imprisoned boy. "I'll go and fetch the key."

He gets over and is just barely tall enough to reach the key.

"Get me the next ball now!"

Right as he slides the key off its hinge, one of the card soldiers grabs him and forces him into a cannonball shape.

Luxord looks up to the now smiling queen, preparing herself to use him as her next cricket ball! The moment she misses, he will—

The queen sends the gambler flying, much to the horror of Roxas "Luxord!" He cries, now really wish he got a way to get out of this cage!

Roxas attention is caught when a cat he has seen before in this world appears before him, clapping as it speaks slyly: "I think the queen deserves a round of applause for hitting the ball the first time."

Sure, but why did that first hit to be on Luxord? He's weird yes, but not that bad compared to some of the other members of the Organization. Better get out from this cage and make sure the Gambler of Fate is all right, "Hey, can you get me out from here?" he asks the grinning cat.

The cat smile widens, "Ah, my friend," it pulls out a porcupine from seemly nowhere. "wait here, it'll take a sec."

To Roxas horror, that blasted cat throws that porcupine right at the back of that hot-tempered queen's head! She turns to him with a glare that would make even Saix nervous.

"Off with his head!" She commands furious and the guards drag the boy to the execution stand.

Meanwhile, inside the forest, Luxord is stuck onto the tree he slammed into from the flight of that queen. The whole tree shakes and looking up, Luxord blinks when he sees himself in the reflection of the huge creature's slit pupil, surrounded by ice-blue color. Recovering from the surprise, he smiles and reaches out to it. "Well, well, it looks like the cards have finally turned in my favor."

Right as the living cards put his head under the guillotine, chaos erupts, Heartless in all sizes burst out from the castle, the one that's the target hits the platform Roxas is kneeling on and actually gives him a chance to get free. He uses the chaos to get away from the card-guards and strike at the Heartless. However, that is not the end of the Heartless, for they just keep on coming. '_Are the shadow globs drawing them out?'_ He ponders but cannot do much speculation for more of the Trickmaster Heartless appear and with them being a stronger kind of Heartless, he is quickly outmatched. Pretty badly beaten up, but unable to get a break from the surrounding Heartless, Roxas has no other choice than keep fighting. "This… is bad…" He breathes heavily, the Heartless come at him again and he prepares himself to make one last stand. But right before they reach him, a pulse and the Heartless freezes in place. Confused Roxas stares at the frozen Heartless, then the mournful call of that colossal creature makes him look up.

Easily breaking through a hedge, the creature arrives, strolling towards the Shadow Glob castle, everyone not moving out of its path, would be flattened by this giant's feet. A few Heartless charges at the creature, it cries and the plates on its body pulse, making the Heartless freezes on the spot. The creature changes position slowly, but it did not make the tail swipe any weaker. It strikes the Heartless so hard that they get destroyed and Roxas felt the wind from that swipe.

"It seems like you were right, Roxas!"

Only there, Roxas notices the person standing on top of the giant creature's head: Luxord! It surprises him, for he only thought Xion could communicate with these things.

Smiling at this turn of event, Luxord calls down to Roxas. "Our big friend here has stopped the Heartless in their track, collect their hearts if you please." The boy does, although still very dumbfounded about seeing him make such a grand entrance. With the Heartless taken care off, "Now my friend;" Luxord points at the Shadow Globe castle. "Dispose of this."

The creature almost seems to be smirking as it slowly turns its back to the castle, lifting its huge and long tail over it. The Queen of Hearts, shocked to see that giant creature, but the moment the creature smacks it tail onto her castle, turning it into rubble, she starts screaming, "My castle! I have just gotten it built!" and commands her guards. "Off with his head!"

The cards attacks but their spears cannot penetrate the creature's thick hide, it doesn't even feel them poking at its legs. Luxord does and chuckles at the quite pitiful sight, "What a reckless gamble." he turns to the enraged queen. "To bet all of your loyal followers in one game."

Done with its task, the creature turns around to leave, unknowingly stepping on several of the card guards and destroyed more of the rose-covered hedges on its way out. The queen starts wailing, at the huge mess the creature made. "You've…. My castle… my garden…!"

Luxord does feel sorry for this woman as he did make the Apatosaurus wander into this area. He teleports off the creature and arrive before the wailing woman. "Don't cry, madam. I'm weak against the tears of a lady." He summons his cards and with them as big as he can make them, builds her a castle out of the cards. Turning to the wide-eyed queen, "Please use this to shelter yourself from wind and rain." and turning to the dumbfounded Roxas. "Our task has reached it's completion, but the prize is not yet claimed." He points at the leaving Apatosaurus.

They leave the queen, who for once, is not feeling angry that her castle got destroyed, instead flattered by that gentleman kind action.

The Organization might like a creature such as this huge one for their disposal. Thought bringing it back might prove a problem. "How do we bring it back?" Roxas asks as they run after the slow walking but fast due to its sheer size creature.

Before they can even figure that huge problem out. The air seems to crack and suddenly, a hooded person stands before them. "The imposter?!" Roxas exclaims and runs at the new arrived, that one snaps their fingers, a pulse and Roxas finds himself frozen in place. _'What is this?'_ He can only think, and no matter how much he tries, is utterly unable to move.

The giant creature steps over to the hooded, lowers its head and the person strokes a hand over the head. The creature glows and shrinks, turning into a golden pocket watch. The hooded takes the watch and turns to the time-frozen Roxas and Luxord.

"I thank you for retrieving my Keeper." The hooded speaks with a strange garbled voice and puts the watch into their pocket. "It has been lost in the sand of time, putting me quite in a dilemma."

_'Who is this guy?' _Roxas wonders, better yet; _'What's a Keeper?' _

"Consider this the gift of appreciation." The hooded waves their hand, "A Keeper is recognized by this sigil," by their magic, an ice-blue armored heart sigil Roxas has seen on each of these blue-eyed creatures appears in the hooded palm. "and they can only be controlled by their master, but you can gain their alliance if sharing their mindset. Keep that in mind the next time you meet one. With that; I bid thee farewell." The hooded bows and disappears into thin air.

Right after the hooded has disappeared, Roxas and Luxord got able to move again. "Where did he go?" Roxas asks for he has never seen one teleport like that. He turns to Luxord, the man has a thoughtful frown on his face but does not seem particularly upset about this Keeper has been stolen from them.

"Hm, it appears we had a third player and he, in the end, claimed the prize of this game." Turning to the boy, "There's nothing for us here, let's RTC."

Roxas nods and as they go through the dark corridors, he cannot stop wondering who that person was. Returning to the castle, Roxas pays Xion a short visit, then heads to the clock tower to tell Axel and Saix about the mission and what the hooded had said. Both Axel and Saix were very interested in finally knowing the name of these powerful creatures. "Keeper huh? And that guy said they each have a master?" Axel asks, Roxas nods and does wonder: "Could that had been that giant Keeper's master?" But neither Axel or Saix know so it's all to speculation at this point. Roxas does somewhat hope that the hooded person is not the one the Organization has called the Imposter. He really does not want the Organization's enemy to have a Keeper that can freeze hoards of Heartless as easily as he would in summoning the keyblade.

* * *

**Writing Luxord was haaaarrrd, but I think he came out well. **

**Now introducing the name of these creatures: Keeper, I have created several and will try and see if I can fit them all into these Books. **

**They aren't like Heartless, Nobody, Unversed, etc. **

**Keepers are extremely rare and unique in each their way, for a good reason. But to why, I will reveal later on in this series**.


	14. The hidden name of the flower

**I was trying to avoid making more OC's but well, there are some old characters I just can't leave be. Don't worry, none of them will have center stage in my stories. It's the KH characters you want to read about after all and not a bunch of OC's.  
All my OC's will do is either help to move the plot or offer character development for the canon people.**

**I am not the greatest at keeping track on days, but this should happen around a week after the last chapter.**

**Enough rambling, let's get on to the story.**

* * *

"Hey, you alright there, pal?" Axel asks, he has taken notice that Saix has been quieter than usual. His friend eyes him briefly before they turn at the doorway leading out from the Grey Room. Saix sighs and speaks: "It's been twenty days now and she hasn't woken." Ah, it's about Xion. Axel must say that he finds it adorable that his friend has gotten such a soft spot for their female friend, then again, Isa was better at speaking with girls than Lea ever was. He has the ability to understand the double dose of complicated females tends to have. "She'll be fine," Axel assures his friend, adding "be up before you know it." and right as he said it, both Roxas and Xion appear at the door. Axel smiles seeing that scene, "See, what did I tell you." adding to Xion whose hair looks almost just as messy as Roxas. "Nice bed-hair."

Xion giggles but does try to flatten down her messy hair.

Saix gives his friend a look, before walking over to the two, "Good to see you up again." and Axel adds with a smile. "About time you crawled out of bed." Xion nods and requests a bit to his surprise: "Saix, I want to go with Roxas today on his mission." He does not fancy that idea at all, "You should recover; besides," Saix checks the papers for today's missions. "I haven't signed you in for any mission."

"Don't keep me pent up in here. I need the exercise." Xion argues, in a softer tone because she is friends with the man and rather not cause a scene for him. "Please, Saix."

Saix looks very reluctant to let her. So Axel steps in. "I'll look after her. Promise not to let her out of my sight." His friend eyes Xion, having a gaze of worry, which is quite unusual, even as human, Saix only would have such a look if Lea got really hurt or if his sickly mother went to the hospital. Must really have gotten close to Xion if she could make him remember how to act this way. Axel thinks it's good, though.

After a long moment of mental debating, Saix sighs in defeat, "Alright, but no fighting on her part." He says hard to Axel, but he no longer can have this cold harshness he could back when his eyes were yellow. Isa's memories have become too strong.

Axel doesn't mind receiving that hard tone, as it did come from worrying about a friend, and it's always nice to see that Saix shows his caring side. He turns to Xion, putting a hand on the hip. "You heard the man, no keyblade swinging."

That she can accept, Xion nods she won't join them in the fight, just happy to join Roxas and Axel on the field again. She, Axel and Roxas head out, ending up in Twilight Town in search of the Heat-saber Heartless. It's rare for Heartless to pop up in this town, so it must be pretty powerful if it earned a mission jus to be taken out. Right after the portal closes, Axel reminds her again. "Don't push it, you hear me? We'll pick up the slack." Xion nods, mostly so she wouldn't worry Saix further. According to Roxas, the second-in-command has been quieter than usual the time she was out. Poor Saix, he probably blames himself from what happed in Wonderland. "I hear you, don't worry." She replies Axel.

They head out in search for the Heartless, they do not find any Heartless for some time. When they do, Axel reminds her again. "No fighting or Saix gotta have my head." Xion nods and although it's hard, she stays back, letting the two handle these weak Heartless.

When done, they head further into town. At the market place, passing that known shop where they get sea-salt ice cream. The man of the shop is outside, tending several pots of flowers and when spotting them; "Hey, there. Doing some shopping today? I got some nice flowers for the house if you're interested."

"We're good." Axel replies the man and continues on the mission. He does add to the only of two people who have been on friendly terms with him, and his three friends. "But expect some ice cream buying later."

"Of course." The man chuckles.

Xion stops and did for a moment consider buying a few. These flowers are quite pretty and the man did have a point, they would decorate her boring and all-white room with their bright colors.

"Xion, are you coming?" Roxas asks, taking notice their female friend is not following.

Hearing that, the man smiles at the known face of the raven-haired teen. "My, my, your parents got a good taste in names. Named after you the Aster tataricus?"

Xion blinks, first; what's parents? And second, "Aster what?" she asks. The man gestures to some purple flowers, explaining: "Aster tataricus, in the language of flowers it is called Shion, which is another word for remembrance." Xion blinks, is she… named after a flower? She looks at the flowers. "Remembrance?" Yeah, that is something she appreciates. She smiles and now curious, asks; "Does the other flowers have other names and meaning too?"

The man beams to this wide-eyed of genuine curiosity girl. "Sure does!" and after have corrected his glasses, eagerly explains each flower's name and meaning to this known sea-salt ice cream costumer.

Right that moment, Axel and Roxas walk over with the blond telling her. "Xion, we need to—" never gets the chance to finish for Xion shows him a bouquet of purple flowers, saying cheerfully: "This flower is named Shion, which means remembrance— it sounds like my name, doesn't it?" Roxas blinks, at first surprised to get a potted flower right up at his face, but when he intercepts the words, "Huh, it does." He realizes and must say; "That's pretty cool."

Xion beams and asks as she points at a big red flower with white markings, "What this called?"

And the man happily replies. "The Dahlia, or the Tenjikubotan. It means having good taste."

Roxas laughs; he's not much for flowers but does find the humor in that name to this flower, "Yeah, it sure does. It's pretty," and getting curious about this whole name flower subject as well, he points at a yellow flower. "What about this one?"

Again they are acting so much like humans and just by looking at a bunch of flowers. Axel slowly walks over to them, listening to the man patiently tell the two the meaning of whatever they point at.  
"The freesia or Furijia means being childish or at times immature— much like your red-haired friend here." The man speaks and to Axel's surprise, adds to him with a knowing wink. "Not sneaking into places you're not supposed to, are we?"

If he could, then Axel would've been startled, but all he can emote is a dumbfounded stare at this smiling man. _'How does he know about... no, no way. Is he from Radiant Garden?'_ Does that mean that more people from his homeworld have survived?  
No, he can't think about that now, such thoughts can be dangerous in the Organization. "Alright, you two. Funs over, let's go." Axel tells his two young friends (who fortunately hasn't noticed anything weird) and heads out, does cast a look to the man having this eerie knowing smile. _'Huh, talk about been hit in the face by the past.'_ Axel is not sure if he likes the idea that there is someone in Twilight Town who knew him from back when he still had a heart. Perhaps it's a good thing that man is a laidback fella so that unexpected reveal should be well kept.

Reminded that they got a mission and not really supposed to speak with the locals, Roxas follows Axel, but Xion lacks behind as she really wants to have the flower that has a name very close to hers. "I would like to buy that one." She points at the Aster tataricus flowers.

The man smiles. "Sure thing." and hands her a pot with the flowers. Xion gives him the munny and cheerfully follow her two friends with the Shion flower.

They walk into the Sandlot, the trio spots their target, skulking around with a Heartless that can cast barriers around others. Axel and Roxas summon their weapons and go straight at the bigger one.

Xion knows she shouldn't fight; still she went out to help with the barrier caster Heartless. It can't do much other than do the barriers, so it shouldn't be too hard.  
"I'll handle this one!" She tells her friends, puts down the flower pot and runs over to barrier Heartless.

Axel and Roxas, in the heat of battle let her deal with the thing, focusing on the Heatsaber Heartless. They managed to defeat both and with the mission over, the trio returns to the portal.

However, right as they reach the area, Xion suddenly feels very light-headed and the last thing she remembers is seeing flashes of some girl who looks kinda like her, giving a boy a sort of charm. Then everything goes dark.

Realizing what just happened. 'oh, Saix is going to kill me… Axel checks up on the passed out Xion. She seems stable so that's good. But of course, the Heartless decides to come and play, and a big one at that. It fires its lasers at them. Axel quickly grabs Xion and jumps away in the last second, backing away with her in his arms. "Leave Xion to me!" He tells Roxas, who is already charging at the Heartless.

"Got it!" Roxas calls back and wants this over with fast before one of those lasers hits Axel and Xion. Taking the Heartless out is a bit tricky but he defeats it, and with its heart released Roxas returns to Axel, eyeing Xion worried.  
"She's not hurt." Axel tells him and that eases a tension Roxas didn't know he had. "Let's RTC, all right?" Roxas nods and knowing Xion will be sad if not remembering it, he takes the flower pot and with it in his hands, follows Axel back to the castle.

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Walking down the hallways, Saix stops when spotting Axel carry an unconscious Xion. Putting a hand up to his head, shaking it slightly. "I knew it was a bad idea…" he muses apprehensive that Xion did indeed get hurt as he dreaded. Axel avoids his gaze and sheepishly passes him, Saix sighs but decides to ignore his other duties and accompany them. In Xion's room, Axel puts the girl down and Saix removes a glove, putting the bare hand on her forehead. "At least she's not running a fever." He muses, so that's one good thing in all of this mess.

"Are you worried about her?" Roxas asks both Axel and Saix, both turn but it is only Axel who speaks. "Of course," The red-haired eyes Saix briefly before turning back to Roxas. "We both do."

"It just doesn't seem like either of you." Roxas remarks, both blinks and he elaborates in the small observation he's made about these two friends. "Saix, you always want to keep all of this a secret and Axel; you don't like it when things get complicated."

Kid got a point, and maybe it's because they need Xion and Roxas on their side, but for Axel, it's more than that. He uncrosses his arms, "You know Roxas…" yes all of this is complicated and it's hard not to let it show, but that's alright. "Why do you think Saix and I go out of our way— not only meeting up with you guys for ice cream but wanting to help out the best way we can?" Roxas titles his head in confusion, so Axel learns down to the kid, smiling. "You want me to tell you why? It's because the four of us are best friends."

"We are?"

Axel turns to Saix, "Isn't that right?"

Saix makes a small huff and closes his eyes, smiling faintly, "I suppose we are." he replies in a quiet tone.

Axel chuckles lightly back, knowing that's his friend is a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to these things. Then it's a good thing he still remembers that much when it comes to friendship. Axel returns back to Roxas, repeating to the teenage boy. "We're best friends, get it memorized, alright?"

Now that Axel said it, yeah, Roxas guess they are. A giggle from Xion catches his attention and checking on her, he is glad to see her eyes open. Xion smiles at Axel. "Thanks, Axel. You're sweet." Axel scratches his neck sheepishly, Xion then turns to Saix, putting a hand on his ungloved, "And thanks of caring so much about us."

Saix does not answer or show any sign on his thoughts, but he does not try and remove her hand. "How are you feeling?" He asks her softly. She smiles, "I just got a little dizzy, that's all. Sorry to worry you guys."

"Don't scare us like that again," Axel tells her and in need to remove this weird touchy-feely there seems to be in the room, he jokes lightly. "otherwise we might get a heart attack."

"or someone starts the waterwork." Saix remarks, quirking a smile at how Axel embarrassingly scratches the back of his head at that reminder.

Xion giggles at the jokes. "Take it easy today, alright?" Axel tells her and leaves the room with Roxas close behind.

"I will. Thanks. All of you." Xion replies, she notices that Saix lingers. She smiles to him. "Saix, I'm fine." She assures him, not wanting to worry Saix further.

He does not answer; instead Saix turns to the flowerpot Roxas carried when he and Axel returned with Xion. He knows that flower. "Aster tataricus."

"Yeah, the man sometimes selling us ice cream said it's also named Shion. Sounds like my name, doesn't it?" Xion replies.

Saix nods slowly, unable to stop the memories from his childhood. "'Remembrance' or 'I won't forget you' it what it means..." He had almost forgotten... this kind of flower was the last thing he gave his mother before she passed away... it's a sad memory, and yet Saix is sort of relieved to remember how sadness is supposed to feel like. He does wish that Xion was indeed named after this flower, but that's not the case. He can pretend, though. "A very suiting name." Xion smiles, he gently puts a hand over her forehead, just as his own father would when he was sick. "No missions tomorrow, and I mean it this time." She giggles and Saix leaves, hearing a: "Sorry for worrying you."  
Worry huh? Is this really what this tense sense is? Maybe, Isa did experience that emotion a lot back in the day.

Xion falls asleep not long after, unaware she got an uninvited guest. The person watches the sleeping girl for a moment, then brushes a hand over the flowers. Mind repeating the conversation he heard between Saix and Xion, before going to one he had with another a very long time ago.

_"The girl bearing the name of this flower needs to die..."_

Eyeing the girl, and already feels a headache coming up. 'Of all the vessels you could've chosen, it just had to be this one.' Well, this is going to be one big pain in the ass. He teleports away, no longer sure how to solve this issue. As much as he hates it, this is too big. He has to discuss it with the rest.

* * *

**Daaaw, I love to write about this group! They are so adorable together! Too bad destiny itself is trying so darn hard to separate them**

**Fun fact, Xion's name does sound very much like the Aster tataricus aka the Shion flower and I might go an old route I also did with my past KH fanfiction when I get that far.**


	15. Why the sunset is red

**This chapter is a bit short compared to the others, but I find it okay as it has a very prominent scene for the Sea-salt Fam.**

* * *

Finishing up her goal on this mission Xion has a feeling Saix had a hand in this from how easy this mission went. It's nice to know he's looking out for her, but she sure hopes he won't continue at giving her an easy time. Xion returns from her mission and like any other day, heads to the ice cream shop, to her small surprise, Saix is there, buying his own ice cream. "Oh, hey Saix." She greets him and turns away from the woman selling these treats and over to her: "Feeling better?" He asks, and she nods, "Yes, much better."

'That's good to know.' The moment he has paid, Saix steps aside, allowing Xion to buy her own treat. With ice cream in hand, they both heads to the clock tower, Axel and Roxas are already there. That is a bit of a surprise since the world they got sent to is tedious to get around. "Back already?" He asks, both turn and nod.

Xion giggles. "Wow, you two sure flew through your mission."

Roxas grins widely, "If you only knew," she and Saix take a seat, while Roxas explains how they finished the mission so quickly. "Axel and I actually flew!"

Saix turns to him, not sure he heard that one right. Axel chuckles, assuring him he indeed did: "No joke, a little lady with wings gave us some glowing dust and wham, we could fly." Saix takes a bite of his ice cream, slowly chewing on it and only when done, he speaks his thoughts. "Strange indeed."

"I was wondering why you two looked so happy." Xion muses and wishes she could've joined them, it sounded like fun. Speaking of which, she turns to Saix, "Hey, Saix, any chance you could give me a mission at that world?"

"Maybe, but right now, I can't change schedule," Saix replies, mostly because he's dealing with late-night work enough as it is and does not need more tedious work. She doesn't seem to mind the wait, and in their moment of silence, he does wonder how it must feel to fly. Probably more fun if he got a heart to feel with, but, he glances to Xion, the idea that she might have a heart has come to mind several times. Even if it's a fake one, it still allows Xion to feel. And Roxas… something tells Saix that because Sora still exists, Roxas is perhaps allowed to feel some emotions thanks to his link to his somebody. Lucky them… how much he would give for being able to feel genuine emotions.

Feeling quite in a good mood, Axel asks the two kids, "Say, do you two know why the sunset is red?" they give him a confused look and Axel explains. "You see, light is made out of a lot of colors and red is the one travels the farthest."

"Like we asked, know-it-all." Roxas grins and playfully elbows the red-haired man.

Axel gives him a cheeky grin, and just can't help himself. "Hey, nobody's perfect, but I:" he points at himself. "am nobody." Xion and Roxas title their head, not getting the joke, but as Axel is about to explain it, Saix stops him and says calmly: "Wait for it."

About five seconds later, Roxas's eyes wide that he got it and bursts out laughing,

Xion got it a moment later and she too starts laughing. Still giggling at that hilarious way Axel played with words, Xion speaks up as she watches the sunset. "The sunset is beautiful today, but I also like the night sky, they are beautiful in each their ways." Roxas nods in agreement.

Axel and Saix exchange a look with one another, unbeknown to the two keyblade wielders, as children, they often joked they were like the day and night. Maybe they still are, hard to know without a heart. All Axel knows their magic of choice does represent the sun and moon, which is sorta funny. Also, he gets the sense that Saix is relieved that Roxas and Xion have come to appreciate the night like he does, not many people do, something about being scared of the dark. Lea was never afraid of it, though, for he knew how much Isa adored the night and often joined his friend in being up late and watching the stars. Did always fall asleep though, but Isa never seemed to mind. Like Lea never did when Isa would sit in the shades during the hotter days in the garden, being anti-social.  
'I miss those days...' Axel finds himself thinking and wish he didn't have these thoughts. It sort of sours the mood for him and the wish of having a heart again increases, but he has long given up the hope of ever becoming Lea again.

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_"Look at this sad sight, my world, where wielders of the Key would be trained, now transformed, gotten closer to your realm of dreams and hidden powers. It now carries this dreadful name, Castle Oblivion." A woman's voice speaks, the sight of a strange castle is before her._

_What is that place? It feels like it's important, but why?_

_Inside this castle, it's layout reminds her of The Castle That Never Was, it's all-white exterior gives off an eerie feeling, like the hallway is trying to claim something from the intruders daring to enter. She finds herself looking up and sees she's being carried by a woman who got dark purple hair that is braided, hanging over the right shoulder, over the haze-purple robe with the middle being light heather. How the hair is, it's revealed her bit pointy ear. At her position, she can just barely spot different shades of blue armor hangs on the left shoulder of this woman._

_"Are you sure she won't remember all of this, Invi?" Another female voice speaks, sounding a bit nervous about something._

_Invi? But... that's the name she called the cobra Keeper... then why..._

_The woman– Invi, looks down to her, those bright purple orbs stare into hers before turning to someone behind her, though she cannot see who it from this angle. "I do not know entities from Aether store memories as they do not have any hearts..."_

_Of course, she does not have a heart. That's the whole goal for the Organization. But what this talk about Aether?_

_Invi glances down to her again, having a look she has never seen before. "There is a chance she might remember, but it's a risk we have to take. The two boys have bound her to this realm, but it's not enough._

_What two boys? Is this woman talking about her friends?_

_"You know as well as I what would happen if she is to be cast back before the attachment to this realm has been properly made."_

_"I know, but are you sure about this?" The other female asks, "I mean, Luxu was strictly told by Master to keep her sealed, and now; you are letting her free?" she sounds nervous, like they are doing something that is really against the rules._

_What does that mean? For some reason, what these two said; it gives a sense of familiarity but she has no idea as to why._

_"I have to… it's part of my role."_

_"Oh, I see."_

_The woman holding her suddenly let's go, and she finds herself being nowhere and yet, still around. It was disorientated to say at least. Then, a familiar light beckons her. She goes there and finds an elderly blond man. He is standing before a girl around her age. This blond girl is in a white dress and hands the man (who is dressed in the Organization black coat)–who takes what lured her. This man makes a very creepy smile, something that freaks her out. But against her feelings, when this man leaves, she follows him– well, it's the light inside the object in his hands that drags her along.7em_

_The man in the Organization coat disappeared, she wanted to follow but this castle... it wouldn't let her._  
_Not sure how much time passed but the man returned, this time with two others, like him, also in black coats but none she recognized. The blond man took something, something she wanted, but only when the shorter of the three lets him have that strange light... she was able to claim that she needed._

_"Try not and drop your pieces again, alright?"_ A young male voice speaks teasingly. Familiar, yet, unknown.

Xion wakes, dizzy and her head hurts. She sits up and hugs her legs, feeling like something is terribly wrong but cannot say surely what it is. "That place… does it holds the answers?" She wonders out loud. Xion briefly eyes the flowers, before quietly getting up and heads out to do today's mission.

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After their missions, Xion asks a rather strange question during their time at the clock tower. "Castle Oblivion, what is it like?" Axel eyes her, not sure why she suddenly asks about that place. "It's nothing much, just and Organization research facility." Memories from his last visit there springs to mind, but he quickly pushes his perhaps cruel actions aside and the meeting with that beast that for some reason didn't mind him intruding.

"For research, huh?" Roxas voices and has made an observation, "It seems like everyone gets sent there all the time. Especially you." He remarks to Axel.

"Although… they never send me or Roxas." Xion muses and does wonder why that's not the case.

Axel is not sure why they are so interested in that place, "They probably just don't need you there. You two are best at fighting Heartless and there aren't any Heartless in Castle Oblivion." he points out, with his mind adding: _'Only memories of Heartless and that strange creature.'_ And he rather not have these kids facing that thing. The Guardian of Castle Oblivion is not only powerful but also smart, which makes it incredibly dangerous. Axel returns his gaze back to the sunset, wondering if Saix will show today, he somewhat doubts it, man has been quite busy lately.

"I'm… I'm heading back." Xion says softly, not feeling like sitting with the two. Her mind is filled with thoughts she does not understand and does not think they can help her with, to be honest… she instead wants to speak with Saix about this. Xion gets up on her feet, but right when she did that, a splitting headache hits her hard and one misstep and she topples over the edge. Roxas caught her in last second, though and pulls her back up. Axel helps him about halfway and with her back up safely: "Maybe you're not completely well yet." Roxas says, Xion is quick to deny it, her body is at full strength. "No, it's nothing like that." She argues softly, her issue is the head, but… she can't explain to them what the issue is, she barely understands it herself.

Even a Dusk would sense that something is up with Xion, she hasn't been herself lately, makes Axel wonder if she is sick because of stress? She and Roxas have been put through a lot of tough missions lately. Axel scratches his neck and steps out to the edge, pondering how to solve this problem. Gaze wandering, landing at something on the horizon, a reflection of the sun's rays. And an idea strikes him, "Got it!"

"Huh? Got what?" Roxas asks, unsure what's up with Axel at the moment. At least the red-haired is kind enough to explain what got him all fired up. "On our next day off, let's all go to the beach."

Xion blinks, like Roxas, not sure where this suddenly comes from. "The beach?"

"We should go someplace different for a change." Axel explains both his brilliant idea: going to new places and relaxing is the best way to get rid of stress and Xion has shown an interest in the ocean with that collecting seashell habit of hers, so the beach will be a perfect place.

Ah, Roxas gets where Axel is going with this. "You're talking about a vacation with friends." Axel nods, saying: "Exactly, and this time;" he points up to the air, grinning, "it's only relaxing, no spinoff missions, got it memorized?"

Roxas laughs at the reminder of what happened the last time they were on vacation. "It was kinda fun though."

The idea is sweet, but from how she has been lately, "I'll join you… if I can" Xion replies but gets more determent to join with Axel's promise, it will be great. Yeah, she thinks it would be nice, hanging out with friends, not worrying about missions. She smiles. "Yes, alright, let's go at the next vacation."  
This plan does cheers her up, but Xion still leaves the clock tower and returns to the castle. She stays in her room for a time and when sure everyone has returned from their mission, she heads to Saix's room. The two Berserker Nobodies stops her, requesting the reason for a visit. "I need to speak with Saix." She tells them, one of them disappears and moments later, the door opens, Saix stands there, looking mildly surprised. He does let her in and with the door closed, Xion speaks, "Saix, something's wrong. I see things of someone I don't know… a girl, who is very important to this boy." She did consider to mention her latest dream; about Invi, Castle Oblivion and that boy's voice, but all of that made less sense than these other dreams she's currently dealing with.

This makes several red flag pop up in his mind. Saix steps over to Xion, asking her in his calm and collective voice, "How long have you dealt with these… images?"

"A week maybe."

So around where she woke up the first time. Are what Xion sees, Sora's memories of whoever Vexen used to create Xion? If so, then why are Xion starting to see them only now? Something with Sora must be going on, something about his memories. "I see…"

"What should I do?"

Not much she can do at the moment, all she can; "Tell me if it gets worse or you start to feel any different." He commands her, adding from the look of worry on Xion's face. "I will try and see if I can find the reason why this is happening." It's sort of a lie, he knows what is going on. Xemnas wanted Xion to steal Roxas's powers, and it seems it's through Sora's memories. He was okay with it at first, but ever since he allowed himself to bond with her and with Roxas. Saix can't make himself let them be entangled into that plan now it's starting to harm one of them. He needs to find a way to stop this before Xion loses herself in Sora's memories.

Xion senses Saix is not completely honest with her, only that his words to help her were true, "Alright." but her mind keeps going back to her latest dream, about Castle Oblivion. Xion has the feeling that is where it all started, where she came to be.

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**The 'nobody is perfect' joke is one I stumbled on the internet and found it quite funny, so I added it to this chapter and made Axel do it as it sounds like something he would say. /b**

**Xion is starting to remember certain things, not only about a girl who looks kinda like her, but also about certain people. If you don't know who they are, I highly suggest you check out Union X and Back Cover. or you can wait for that book in the series, entirely up to you**


	16. Taming the Guardian

**This chapter is quite short, I have sorta been dealing with the crap that involves DeviantART's new layout.**

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"Axel, I need a favor of you."

Something is up, he can feel it in the darkness making up his body. "What do you need?" Axel asks his friend. Saix bob his head, sign this conversation shouldn't be spoken here, so Axel follows him to another location of the castle. Only there, Saix speaks. "I need you at Castle Oblivion, bring everything Vexen wrote."  
Axel looks at his friend, surprised that Saix is making such a command and it's not like his friend to be this rash; that's more his area: "Whoa, what's going on?" He asks, pondering what has made Saix become like this.

Saix is reluctant to reveal the truth to Axel of what Xion truly is. For all he knows, it might change Axel's point of view on her. "I have promised Xion to check up on why she has memories that do not belong to her." He explains in an attempt to avoid the harsh truth.

Sensing Saix is avoiding something. "Isa, be honest with me, what is really going on with Xion?" Axel asks but dreads the answer from the look Saix gives him. It's the same look Isa gave him the day after his mother's passing.

"You're not going to like the answer."

"I still need to know."

He supposes he owes Axel that much... Saix nods slowly and explains Axel. "Xion is not like any of us. She's a replica, created by Vexen." Axel's eyes wide in shock but does not interrupt him, allowing Saix to continue, "Removing Sora's memories in Castle Oblivion; it was partly the reason Vexen created Xion. She was made to steal his powers, and give us a second keyblade under the Organization rule. She was never meant to gain a face— to look like the girl we met as kids, yet she does and I don't have a clue as to why." He's babbling, but this is hard to come to terms with. To accept that Xion is only a tool when the shadow of Isa screams at him that she is his friend— that she is in danger. He briefly brushes a hand over his itching scar, continuing to explain this to Axel. "Maybe she is capable of stealing out memories too, I don't know. I was fine with her doing that at the start. It wasn't hurting any of us, I wanted to see that girl again… and we might lose her again." Saix turns and looks up to the star-less sky. "I don't think she will be herself if this keeps going, and who knows: With Roxas being Sora's Nobody, what will stop her from stealing Roxas's powers?"

All of this… it's mind-blowing to say at least. Xion, is a replica, created of Sora's memories? That she was solely made to steal the powers of that kid? "Those fainting spells, it's Sora's memories affecting her?" He asks Saix slowly, still trying to wrap his head around this major info dump his friend did on him.

"Yes," Saix nods, he leaves the spot of watching the dark sky, turning to his friend. "I don't care what happens to Sora, but you know how far I will go for people I care about." Saix does not care if a Nobody shouldn't be able, he cares for both of those kids and would do anything to keep them both safe.

Yup, he sure does. Axel nods and knowing his friend, Saix is willing to royally piss off the Organization in the sake for his friends. And it's not something they can risk at the moment. "Alright, I'll bring back those files for you." He's still dumbfounded in this news and parts of him do feels betrayed in knowing Xion is a replica, but it cannot erase the many days spent at the clock tower nor the promise of them being best friends. Yes, she isn't real, but neither of them is that. "We will solve this, don't worry." He assures Saix and figures he might as well head out and find clues in how to save Xion from what she was created for. Saix's right, he does not care much for Sora. Sure the kid was something but right now, Roxas and Xion are the priority.

The moment Axel has left to fetch those research notes, Saix heads to the main computer of the castle so he can file down this week's reports. He stops and notices that the computer screen is on, and the Castle Oblivion files are up. Dreading what this means. _'Oh Xion, you little fool…'_

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This is it, the place that has been haunting her mind. Hopefully no one will notice; she made sure to leave during a mission and it should be easy to make a false report at it is a heart collecting mission in a world she already has been to. Has to hurry, though. Xion walks inside, and three steps in, a nasty migraine hits her. Xion collapses onto the floor, unable to focus on the pictures flashing past her eyes. Struggling past the pain, Xion gets back on her feet and wobbles to the door. She is so disorientated that she does not know where she's going. Only do when a hand folds around her arm, and in a flash, she finds herself staring up to Axel's face. "What are you doing here?" He demands her, his voice hard, like he's trying to sound angry but is unable. Xion looks around, but all she sees is this white, empty hall. It reminds her of that weird dream involving the woman having the same name as what she called the cobra Keeper. She turns her gaze back to Axel who speaks again, "You shouldn't be here— it's only making it worse." and before she can argue, he has her in his arms, carrying her to what Xion presumes is the exists.  
She struggles to get back down. "No, this is where I will find the answer—"

"Xion, the answers you seek will only cause you further harm." Axel interrupts her; he has both heard it from Saix and read Vexen's files about her and now knowing she is solely created to steal Sora's memories. Maybe Saix is right, maybe that memory stealing ability is the reason she looks like the girl he and Isa met as children, he can't say for sure. But it does not matter anymore, Xion's well-being matters. And unfortunately, none of Vexen reports holds any clue in how to stop Sora's memory from invading her body.

"Axel, I remember this place, I remember meeting you here." Xion argues, though no longer trying to get down, now she just trying to understand what she has been seeing in her dreams lately.

This is way worse than he thought. Axel shakes his head, "You have never met me here," not sure if telling her the truth will be for the best; lying is easier. Saix did say that they have to keep the two close, but will the truth make her stay or push her away? Axel does not know, but he decides to tell her partly the truth, the rest Saix has to deal with. "Those memories belong to someone else."

Xion stares at him dumbfounded, those memories… belongs to someone else? "Who?" and more importantly, "Why do I have them?"

Axel opens his mouth, but a chirping sound makes him tense up. Shit, the thing is here… he glances back to the Guardian, currently in its smaller and more harmless shape. It's standing in the middle of the room, staring at them with a titled head. It chirps again and takes a step towards them, at the moment confused about how to deal with them. Axel is swift to walk away, not sure in how it will react on Xion. "Time to go."  
He opens a portal and Xion does not put up a fight as he carries her back home. she does however demands him softly: "Axel, please tell me, what's wrong with me?"  
He does not meet her eyes but does answers, "Saix should be the one to tell you—" a chirp and he gets toppled over by the cat-sized Guardian. He hits the floor headfirst, making the whole room spin.

The cat-sized creature jumps away from Axel and turns to her, slowly walking over while making a few whistling sounds and stops right before her. Xion stares into this creature's striking red eyes, and when it titles its head at her, she is sold. Xion hugs the creature, squealing in how freaking adorable it is!

At first thinking that thing is attacking her, Axel snaps his head up, to only stare dumbfounded in the scene of Xion hugging the Guardian of Castle Oblivion like a child who just got themselves a new pet as Christmas present. _'She's a gosh darn beast master!'_ Axel can't help but think, the Guardian of the castle, a creature that has caused the Organization a bunch of headaches. Is now being hugged by a teenage girl.  
Xion then, at this moment, completely forgotten about her problems, asks with beaming eyes. "Can I keep it?" Still hugging the guardian of Castle Oblivion, who is surprisingly chill about this whole thing.  
Staring into those wired, pure blue eyes, so full of excitement of this found… Axel's head drops to the floor, hates himself for being unable to say no to those eyes and he already knows that Saix won't be able to resist them either. "Sure…" he muses defeated.  
Xion squeals in delight, for the first time in days, feel happy again. The creature squeaks but does not seems to be bothered by her hugging it. Nor that she carries it away from the domain it has been protecting with a vengeance.

Leaving Xion in her room with her new pet, Axel heads straight to Saix and whispers to him. "We need to talk." Saix does a faint nod and they leave the Grey area. At a more private setting and after having handed Vexen research files, Axel explains everything he found and that Xion has gone to Castle Oblivion for answers. Saix did not seem surprised by this, what did catch the blue-haired off guard though: "The guardian of Castle Oblivion, for some reason it's completely tame around Xion." Axel gestures to there the living quarters and where the girl is, presumably still hugging that thing. "And that's saying a lot, it barely tolerated me and everyone else could look forward get mauled by it."

"Curious, but something we need to ponder about later." Saix says, crossing his arms in thoughts of what Axel has shared with him. Xion is indeed taking Sora's memories, remembering things the keyblade wielder should. "Xion is stealing his scattered memories, turning them into her own…"

"Seems like that. Thought she had met me at the castle when I found her." Axel replies.

This is troubling, but there might be a way to stop it. The very Nobody who scattered Sora's memories should be able to reverse the effect. "Track Naminé down."

That sentence is more than enough to know what the next course of action is, Axel nods and leaves straight away.

Saix leaves as well, but instead returns back to the castle, to Xion's room. he knocks at the door and the moment she lets him inside, Saix steps into the room. Xion is sitting on the bed, covering like a worried child. Sitting beside her is the seemly dangerous guardian from Castle Oblivion… he does not see what makes that adorable thing such a threat.  
She looks up to him, "Saix, tell me everything." she says.

He nods and takes a seat at the bed, he will tell her but feels inclined to warn her first. "This truth won't bring you any happiness or peace." She nods slowly, but still wants to know and so he tells her everything. "You're not a Nobody like the rest of us. Instead something called a replica, meaning you're a puppet, created out of memories of someone else. Xemnas intended you to not only wield the keyblade but to steal the powers of this person which memories they used to create you."

"Does that mean… I'm a sham?"

Saix reaches out for her, gently pulling her close to his body, with Xion as his side, he speaks. "You might have been created out of someone else's memories, keyblade's a copy of someone else, but the memories of your time here; they are yours and yours alone."

Xion leans up against Saix, listening to his words, feeling his strong yet gentle hand on her shoulder, it's comforting. "What about these memories?" she asks.

"Axel is currently out searching for someone who we hope can remove those from you." Saix replies, but that might take a while as neither has an idea where she is currently hiding. "We are doing everything in our power to help you, Xion. All I ask in return; is your patience." He brushes a lock of her black hair aside, "I know it's hard, but try not let those memories control your actions."

"Alright," Xion nods, she will leave this to Saix and Axel, she trusts they will help her like they have done before. She glances at the flowers. 'Shion, meaning remembrance… it and I have more in common more than ever…'

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**Now that Saix is part of the group, Axel has someone to lean on with the issue about Xion's stealing Sora's memories and thus his powers. As well as Saix has a friend who can help him with the dirty work.**

**and the return of the Guardian! Now a pet for Xion! She deserves it, gotta need comfort from a cat Unversed. hm, I wonder if Vanitas can feel the hugs Xion is giving it? I let you decide if that's the case or not.**


	17. Connection through the music

**There has gone several weeks after the conversation Saix and Axel have about their plans, all the time Roxas has been utterly unaware of what is going on. Axel has a few times been encountering Riku, but it always ended up in a fight and Riku got away before Axel could get the answer to Naminé whereabouts. I was considering writing one of those encounters but what I got felt like garbage, so I scrapped it.**

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Waking from a rather nice dream about the beach, Roxas mistook this dream as his great wish of going there with his friends and not the memories of another. Yawning as he steps into the Grey Room, Roxas wonders out loud. "I wonder how long till our next vacation?" Maybe he should ask Saix about it? Over at the spot, Roxas notices that Axel is talking to Saix, he cannot hear what they are saying, only that Axel has a serious expression on his face. The red-haired man nods to whatever Saix said and leaves through the portal before Roxas can get his attention. That's too bad, Roxas really wanted to speak with him– ask to why he's not around anymore… just like Xion….

Speaking of which, Roxas checks the area but does not see her. "Maybe she's already left for her mission?" He walks over to Saix, hoping the man can give him some an—

"Yo Roxas!" From seemly nowhere, Demyx puts a hand over his shoulder, smiling down to him with: "Looks like we've been paired up for today's mission. So," He smile widens. "I'm gonna need you to work twice as hard for both of us!"

… Roxas gets the feeling Demyx won't be helping out at all… not something Roxas looks forward to… but there's nothing to do about it. Walking over to Saix, the second-in-command explain them their mission. "You're going to capture the elusive creature that has shown up in Olympus Coliseum."

Demyx blinks, for that's not much to go on. "What kind of creature?" Please don't let it be some stupid strong Heartless… Saix eyes him coldly, well not as much as back when his eyes were yellow. Huh, Demyx do wonder why they have changed? The man hands then a sketch of a mark that looks an armored heart shape, explaining: "From an earlier report of Roxas and Xion, this creature bear this sigil. Its appearance has caught the Superior attention, so it's your mission to capture and bring it back to the castle."

Recognizing the mark and with the world combined, "The kangaroo…" Roxas muses and does hope the creature will not put up a fight and go with them willingly. It did help him and Xion, after they helped it, of course. Saix sends them off and Roxas stares at the mark on the paper, recalling that the flying snake in the forest of talking animals and that huge thing Wonderland; they too bore that mark. '_They can only be controlled by their master, but will ally themselves with people sharing their mindset, keep that in mind the next time you meet one.'_ The words of that mysterious man echoes thought his mind, remembering what he called them. "Keeper…" Roxas muses.

Stopping his whining of having to face some kind of creature, Demyx looks down to Roxas dumbfounded of what the kid just had said, "Did you say, Keeper?"

Roxas nods and explains. "A mysterious man called creatures bearing this sigil for a Keeper." He sweatdrop when Demyx groans exaggerated. "Oh man…!" Well, hopefully the kangaroo still remembers him. It'd been quite a while he last saw it. "Maybe we don't have to fight it," Demyx blinks and he explains. "when Xion and I last encountered it, this uh Keeper helped us out defeating Heartless. It is pretty friendly."

That seems to assure Demyx, for the other Organization member smiles and remarks down to him. "Well, let's hope it still remembers you." Roxas nods in agreement, for he would prefer they don't have to fight the kangaroo Keeper.

They in the world, no sight of the creature though, not even that familiar sound it makes. Demyx, unaware that the kangaroo Keeper is clearly not here due to he hasn't met the creature. "Well, better start searching." The Melodious Notrume sights, and Roxas is kind enough to spare him for this needless searching. "He's not nearby."

Demyx blinks,"he?" he asks confused.

"That's what Xion called him." Roxas shrugs, "Not sure how, but she's able to hear his voice or something." That's how they first found the kangaroo Keeper.

"Okay…?" Weird, but it might be that faceless girl's hidden power or something. "So what makes you say 'he' is not nearby?" Demyx asks.

"Well, he makes these sounds— like music, when he moves around." Roxas explains and hiding in this area, yeah, that's not possible. "and he is a big guy."

"…How big?"

Roxas points at the doors leading into the coliseum. "Big as those doors."

Demyx is quiet for a moment, then as if he first now realizes what Roxas said, jumps. "Whaaaa?! How are we supposed to drag that thing back with us?!" Demyx exclaims, spins around and turns to the still open portal. "It can't even fit the dark corridor!"

Hm, didn't think of that. "I'm sure we figure something out." Roxas replies and begins to move, "Let's find the Keeper first." he hears a small moan from Demyx but at least the other Nobody follows him.

Leaving the Coliseum area, Roxas heads out to the large city below, it's a bit hard to get around as many people are walking around.

A group of passing people catches Roxas's attention.

"You heard about the creature at the rivers?"

"You mean the one making all that racket? Oh yes, I hear Hercules is out dealing with it."

"I'm glad it hasn't attacked the city as of yet. But at least our hero is here to protect us."

Watching those people leave, Roxas has a strong idea they spoke about their target. "Must be the kangaroo," eyeing Demyx who jerks startled, probably because it's not really the shape one would think of a powerful creature, "Come on, we better get to it before this Hercules does." and starts running. He did not see Demyx drops his head in defeat, but at least the young man follows. Reaching the river area, the familiar sound of the kangaroo can be heard down among the many low rivers and trees. "You hear that? It's the Keeper!" Roxas cries happily to finally have found it.

Demy listens to the sounds of this kangaroo and voices his observations. "It sounds scared."

"Yeah, he's a bit of a scaredy-cat," Roxas admits and hurries down to the river area and find that Keeper. Tracking it down is pretty easy with the constant music it is making; they find it at one of the rivers, fleeing from a man Roxas has seen before in the Coliseum. The man can keep up but he cannot catch the speedy kangaroo.

The sounds the kangaroo makes suddenly change and a shockwave bolts from its next jump, throwing its chaser off his feet, it spins around and kicks the man with both legs, sending him flying into the nearest boulder that cracks at the impact. Then the kangaroo takes the run for it again. Busier getting away that it does not hear a familiar voice calling for it, all it is sensing is the dark auras, which for this one means more Heartless, so it flees deeper into the forest area. Only the sounds of music reveal its location.

Roxas groans, "He can't hear us through all the sounds he's making…" that's the issue with this creature. When in this state, they might as well be invisible to it. At least the kangaroo is easy enough to track.

They follow the sounds of the Keeper and much deeper inside this area; Demyx admits tired. "This is not as easy as hoped…." They have been following that thing for hours and not one step closer getting to it. That thing is just too fast… Suddenly, the sound the creature makes changes into something that reminds Demyx of when someone tone-deaf tries to play, then… silence. "Uh… why did it stop?" He asks, not sure if he likes this sudden silence.

Roxas does not have an answer, instead he continues moving to where the kangaroo sounds were moments ago. In a clearing, he spots the kangaroo, lying down in a manner that makes Roxas wonder: '_Is he… trying to hide?' _It might've worked if not for the glowing squares on its head and back, not to mention all of the markings it has several places on its body. The kangaroo pale blue eyes are pointed at their direction but it does not show any sign of has spotted them. Roxas walks over to it, 'M_aybe he recognizes me.' _and the creature is letting them— the kangaroo leaps up like a coiled spring, and the booming sound it made throws Roxas off his feet, ending up to where Demyx is standing. Getting up, Roxas notices the kangaroo poses itself for battle, a pulse of sound emerging from its back. "Don't you recognize me?" He wonders out loud but it does not look like that. Maybe it only recognized Xion? Whatever the case, they have to get this Keeper back. Roxas summons his keyblade, "Sorry about this." and charges at the kangaroo, long before he can reach its body, though. The kangaroo stomps its feet and the shockwave throws Roxas back, he tries again but it only has the same effect.

"I can't get past his sound barrier!" Roxas exclaims frustrated. Did not make it any better when a bunch of Heartless appears. "Great…" Well it looks like they have to deal with the Heartless first. "We can focus on the kangaroo Keeper later."

Before Roxas can run and swing his keyblade at the Heartless. "Wait." Demyx stops him, for once his gaze is serious, "You'll focus on the Heartless." he turns his eyes to the sound pulsing creature. "I'll handle the Keeper."

Isn't that a surprise. Demyx is not the type to get into a fight on his own account. "You sure? I have seen it destroy Heartless with a single kick." Roxas points out. Demyx jerks in horror and yells: "Don't make it hard for me than it already is!" The other Nobody sighs and turns back to the Keeper. "Not sure it will work, but I might be able to speak, uh, his language."

If Demyx says so, "Okay." and Roxas runs over to fight the Heartless. That task itself is difficult. Not only are these Heartless of higher level but the kangaroo's pulse attacks keep throwing him off his feet.

Turning to the creature, Demyx sights, summons his sitar and walks over to it. Right at the edge of the sound barrier, "Alright, let's rock!" Demyx begins to play on his weapon of choice and begins to play his own music. Using his mastery over water magic, Demyx creates several water geysers and makes them blow right under the kangaroo, as hoped makes it focus on him. Though he had hoped it would stay still. The kangaroo jumps up and begins to speed around, to then charge right at him. Demyx almost gets trampled down by that sudden charge, he tries to throw impacted balls of water at it, but every shot misses or gets destroyed by the Keeper's sound pulse attack.

It comes at him again, but this time Demyx has observed that the sounds- the music follows the kangaroo Keeper's movements. He grins widely. "This is more my style. Alright, let's have a music battle!" He yells at the kangaroo and lets his fingers fly over the strings of his sitar, the water following the music coming from it.

Demys listens to the kangaroo's own battle music and now that he understands all of its strikes are sound-related, he has a much easier time in dodging and even counter the attacks. The creature does also seems to realize that he too is using music and starts to follow his example, but this only excites Demyx. It's been forever he last got tested his skills like this.

Roxas forgets about the Heartless for a moment of the music enveloping this whole area. Turning around, Roxas jaw drops in how the Keeper and Demyx are battling it out, water and sound waves striking, and the two constantly moving around, all the time focused on the other. Roxas has never seen Demyx this focused before or giving his all in battle. A Heartless hits him over the head and Roxas is forced back to focus on these guys, all the time he listens to the two kinds of musical styles, mixing together into one.

The kangaroo jumps and lands right before the musical Nobody, creating a dry area for just a few seconds in the water. Those seconds feel like minutes for Demyx, he stares up and into this creature's eyes. For the first time since he lost his heart, he has formed a connection with someone through music. The water returns but Demyx does not notice. His entire focus is on the finally still kangaroo; slowly, his shaking hand leaves the sitar's strings and Demyx puts it onto this Keeper's forehead. It closes its eyes in the sign it has accepted him. Smiling Demyx returns his hand back to his weapon and although it hurts after have strung the strings like crazy for so long. He still begins to play, the kangaroo listens for a moment, then turns and right as he points at the spot. The kangaroo, using the melody from his instrument, attacks the Heartless, dropkick, tail swipe and even headbutt them, and makes a grand finally by making a sound-wave, destroying the remaining Heartless. Demyx holds his left hand above his head, grinning as this is the first time he's fully able to remember how it felt of truly emerging oneself in the art of music.

Must say, this came as a surprise, Roxas honestly didn't expect Demyx to be able to communicate with the kangaroo Keeper, let alone figure out a way to control it. "Wow..." He breathes out, both at the long fight but also at how well Demyx performed. Roxas can now see he has greatly underestimated this member of the Organization.

He walks over and asks Demyx, who is also a bit out of breath. "Can you make him follow us?" To blink confused when Demyx chuckles embarrassingly with: "I'm not sure…"

"Why's that?"

"I can't feel my fingers anymore."

Roxas sweatdrop, not sure if he should laugh or facepalm that Demyx cannot do the very thing this creature listens to. Well, at least they got it under their control. Looks like that hooded guy is right, if figuring out how to communicate on their level, a Keeper can be controlled as Demyx and even Luxord has proven. Thought it seems only Xion can, in fact hear their voices and have better control over the Keepers, must be her unique ability like light is his.

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Several weeks of searching, to unfortunately having to return back empty, Axel meets up with Saix. "I have checked Castle Oblivion and followed on any sort of clue about her location only be walking into dead ends. Hell, even tried to get Riku talking, but brat is quite adamant in keeping his friend safe." Not making it any better that Riku has gotten adept in using darkness for his own use. It has made him both a tricky and dangerous opponent. Axel sighs as he hates to admit it but; "I got nothing, not a single trace of Naminé whereabouts."

"Riku… how does he look like?" Saix asks, he only knows about the friend of Sora through reports, though he has never seen that friend.

"Looks to be around a year older than Sora, silver hair, turquoise-blue eyes and quite the affinity for the darkness." Axel replies, oh, and by the looks of it. "He seems to be the Imposter who has given us trouble these past months; he's wearing the Organization cloak— no idea what the blindfold is for though." for it was clear Riku can still see.

Huh, that does familiar. This Riku Axel speaks about have the same traits as the one he fought in Wonderland. Quite the stroke of luck really. "During my fight with the Imposter, I saw the face, and he sounds like how you described this Riku." Saix eyes harden; this is risky but Xion is starting to get really affected by the memories and Roxas is showing signs of exhausting lately. Time is getting short. "Find him. I don't care how you do it, but make him talk. We need to find Naminé before we lose either of Roxas and Xion."

He will, no more playing nice to the kid, but; "What happens if we do nothing?" Axel asks his friend. Saix starts to walk a few steps, and he follows him with his green eyes.

Saix stops at a window that gives a prime sight to Kingdom Hearts. "Roxas will perish by Xion's hands, and she would no longer be herself. If we're unable to find Naminé, then the question is: which one of the two would you choose to save?"

Axel cannot— will not answer this question, the thought of losing either is hard, even if he does not have a heart to feel such emotions. His lack of words seems to be answer enough for Saix. "Time is short, Lea. Move quickly."

Axel nods and leaves straight away. Now aware of what's on stake, he refuses to rest before an answer is found.

Saix returns to his duties as the second-in-command, trying his best to keep a low profile and the two out of trouble, it's a bit hard when Roxas does not know the truth of what is going on. The kid is aware something is up but not knowing why has left him confused and lost, which did make him quick to anger. Observing this and knowing that in order to keep Roxas close, he has to know. So after her mission, Saix pulls Xion aside, requesting her; "May I tell Roxas what is going on? He is starting to ask why you never come to the tower anymore."

Xion drops her head, sad that she has to keep a distance to him, but it is for his own safety. She worries in how Roxas will react but… Xion looks back up to Saix "Tell him." He nods and leaves, Xion can only hope Roxas will understand and not do something reckless. Her new pet whistle and Xion pulls it close to her, petting its smooth skin is comforting.

Roxas didn't take the news as well as either Axel or Xion did. Not because he's feeling betrayed of being left out for so long, no, instead; "What do you mean she's a copy of someone else's memories?" He demands Saix angrily in his confusion, not understanding what the man has been telling him.

Saix sighs, but his hard gaze never breaks contact with Roxas's eyes. "It's exactly what I am saying. Xion is a replica, created out from your Somebody's memories."

"My… Somebody?"

"Yes, his name is Sora, and unlike any other of the Organization; your Somebody is still around, existing without you. Sora's memories were scattered and Xion has been picking up those pieces, which is what has been affecting her."

"But what does that have to do with her not coming to the clock tower?" Roxas demands.

Saix wishes the kid at times wasn't so naïve. He is smart but lack of experience makes him incredibly ignorant of the harsh reality surrounding all of them. He is messaging his starting to hurt head, all this stress of keeping the others unaware of their background scheming, having Axel out in search for Naminé, dealing with these two kids, and still fighting against that dark figure inside his head. It's really taking a toll on him. "Roxas, you are Sora's Nobody, connected to him." He explains the boy and inwardly preys Roxas will get it now. "Xion was created to tap into this connection, and lately, this ability of hers has gone haywire." He gestures at the boy, who has been so tired and not because of the work he's been doing lately. "Haven't you noticed you're having trouble wielding the keyblade lately?" Roxas nods slowly, "It's her, she is stealing your powers and that is why I told her to keep a distance from you."

"To keep her from stealing more?" Saix nods, Roxas does not like this at all. He's still confused about what all of this copy and him still having a Somebody talk, but one thing Roxas is sure of. Saix is trying to stop whatever is going on. "Where's Axel?" Roxas asks, their red-haired friend hasn't been around for quite some time now and none knows where he is. Only Saix but his lips have been sealed, until now:

"He's searching for someone who might be able to stop this before…" The man hesitates "before Xion eliminates you."

A tight squeeze around his chest, one that hurts and making him breathe faster, Roxas knows she's not doing it on purpose, but to think she is slowly killing him by merely staying close to him.

Roxas is quick to brush the fear aside, replaced with determination. "I want to help." Saix blinks, and Roxas repeats, with more words of what he meant. "I want to help Axel find this person, I want to help Xion. That's what friends do, right?"

Looking into those blue eyes, he had seen this kind of determination many times before he became Saix. However, he's used seeing that gaze in a pair of green eyes. "It looks like you're not only rubbing off him." Saix remarks at this observation. The determination in Roxas eyes is replaced with confusion, but Saix is not going to elaborate on what he meant.

It's going to be tricky, but right now, Xion will need all the help she can get. "Alright, you can help." Roxas brightens up but he's going to warn the kid right away. "But it's not going to be easy. Unlike Axel, who can fake he's out searching for the Imposter, you still have to stick to your heart collective missions."

"So you're saying, while I am searching, I need to collect hearts as well?" Saix nods, right, it will be just like when Xion lost her ability to use the keyblade. "I have done it before, I can do it again." Roxas tells the scarred man determent. "You can count on me."

"I have no doubt about it." Saix replies, well aware Roxas will do anything for the sake of his friends. He and the kid have that in common.

None of them noticed something invisible moving away from the Grey Quarters' large window that gives the view to Kingdom Hearts. It crawls over to the area where the living quarters are, where it stares into Xion's window, watching her hug the Guardian in an attempt to remove the gloominess hanging over her.

* * *

**Even Demyx can be useful when he wants to, and for an unfeeling Nobody, I am fairly certain he had fun fighting the sound making kangaroo.  
oh, and the reason the kangaroo Keeper didn't recognize Roxas: Keepers do not see like people would, they sense auras and knows instinctually who is friends or allies with their Master.**


	18. The harsh truth

Yet another search mission, this time in Halloween Town. Out from desperation, Roxas has become way more reckless and got spotted by the locals as he hurried up to collect hearts from the Heartless so he could get searching for this Riku.

For some reason, that name sounds familiar but Roxas can't really point from where, not that it matters; all that does is this Riku might hold the answer to help Xion.

The moment the Heartless are taken care of, Roxas does a double-check of the area, making sure that no one fitting the description Saix gave him is skulking about. He even asks some of the locals if they have seen one dressed like him, but so far, nothing. "Seems like he's not here—" Roxas outwardly thoughts come to a sudden halt when he gets the overwhelming sense of being watched. He spins around, but other than this strange hill, there is nothing. Still, the sense of being watched does not go away. Feeling uncomfortable, Roxas turns around to leave.

The sound of something hitting an object, Roxas summons his keyblade and spins around.

A pumpkin rolls towards him, something definitely hit it, but what? Roxas scans the area for the watcher, but can't see anything. Still, he's kinda freaked out, so Roxas quickly leaves— only to be thrown to the ground by something powerful. It clenches his feet and before he can even think about using his weapon. The invisible thing drags him into a weird portal, out to a beach, where the dragging proceeds and he gets his mouth full of sand. Then the thing hurls him into the water, and when Roxas gets back up, coughing up saltwater and sand, he sees sand moving, followed by the sound of something big climbing over the tree walls, rapid movements at the small forest and then... it's gone. "What was that?" Roxas asks himself and walks back into shore. '_Was that I felt watching me?' _Not sure, heck, Roxas's not even sure what it was, only that it was strong, big and very fast.

Well it's gone now, so Roxas begins to look around whatever world the thing threw him into. It's a beach, and a world he never have been to before and yet... "Huh, it feels familiar. Hanging out with my friends, building a raft…" he muses but… "why? I've never been here before or done any of those things." Roxas muses to himself, very confused about these thoughts.

"No, but he has."

Roxas spins around and the second he realizes this also cloaked boy, about a year older than him fits the description Saix gave him. He tenses up, ready to summon his keyblade if this one wants to pick a fight with him. "Are you Riku?" Roxas asks.

Refusing to show his own surprise show from this Nobody's sudden arrival by whatever that brought him. "Yeah," Riku replies with a collective tone, and tells this tense and somewhat glaring blond boy. "and you must be Sora's Nobody." This is the first time he stand face to face with his best friend's Nobody. He can see some resembles in appearance. Behavior, not so much. "Do you feel him?"

'_What does he meant by— never mind that, Xion needs help!' _Roxas shakes the confusion away, "Forget about me! I need you to bring me to Naminé!" Roxas demands angrily, the older boy jerks slightly in surprise, again he ignores it. "Sora's memories are hurting Xion, I was told Naminé can remove them from her. So, I need you to bring me to her." Roxas tells the silver-haired boy hard and in a tone he's not going to take a no for an answer.

An encounter with one of the Organization's people always spells trouble, but it seems, even some of those can change their nasty behavior, well sort of. Axel has been straight out hostile towards him and Sora's Nobody sure got a temper Sora never seems to have. That or he's just desperate, which is unusual as Ienzo did tell him that a Nobody shouldn't be able to feel such emotions if they have no memories about it. As far as he's aware, Sora has never been this desperate before. "You care about this Xion." Riku observes, and does wonder if Axel was acting like that because he too wanted to help this Xion.

"Of course I do! She's one of my best friends!"

"Is Axel one of them?"

Roxas blinks in surprise that Riku knows Axel's name, then again, Axel always tells people to get his name memorized. "Yeah." He replies.

This is quite unusual, they are beings without hearts, without emotions. And yet, both Axel and Sora's Nobody are trying to save this Xion. "Your behavior is quite unusual for a Nobody." Riku notes himself to speak with Ienzo about this strange behavior from beings they shouldn't be able to worry about others well being.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Roxas demands, not sure why but he got offended by those words, even though everyone— Saix and Axel included, kept saying that a Nobody shouldn't be able to feel anything.

And speaking of strange behavior, Riku has never seen his currently sleeping friend makes such a glare from his remarks. Has seen it on his dark clone, though. Naminé is right, this Nobody has been fighting so hard to be his own person; self-awareness is blocking the link he should've felt towards Sora. Making him return to where he belongs will be tricky. "I will bring your friend to Naminé, on the condition; you will not follow." Riku tells this angry Nobody. He would love to drag this one back to Sora but as it stands now, his friend's Nobody will put up one hell of a fight and will most likely attack Sora if he gets put before him. Something Riku cannot risk. '_He needs to feel Sora, and right now; he does not have any wish to go back.' _And if the Nobody never feels that way, then Riku will be at his rope's end and forced to give his all… but if that happens, not only will he banish the heart residing inside his, but… he won't be himself ever again...

That was too easy, something about this feels wrong. Not sure how exactly, but the many recon missions and teaching of being observant is putting up a red flag. "You're up to something, and it better not be about hurting her." Roxas warns this Riku.

Not feeling Sora at all, his Nobody is way more suspicious than Sora. "I won't, I promise." and Riku means it. Maybe if he play nice, then perhaps Roxas will be more willing to hear him out in the future. Can only hope.

"Bring your friend here and I will bring her to Naminé."

Roxas nods and straight away teleports away, there is no time to waste. Arriving at the castle, Roxas at first trots over to Saix. "I found Riku." and after a quick explanation of the agreement, Saix says: "Well done, now, you have to leave the rest up to me. We cannot risk that Xion steals more of your powers."

Roxas does not like it, but he understands this safety precaution. "Understood."

Saix leaves Roxas and in a faster than usual walk, heads to Xion's room. Stepping inside he finds her huddled on the bed, petting that creature as if it was a harmless cat. "Xion," He calls, catching her attention. "we found someone who should be able to help you."

Relief washes over Xion in hearing that news, she knew her friends wouldn't let her down. Xion leaves the bed and trots over to Saix, taking his hand. Her new pet swiftly leaves the bed as well and leaps onto her shoulders, Saix stares a moment at the creature and Xion asks. "Can I bring Swift with me?" It would be nice as this creature does bring her some comfort.

….She called it Swift? No, never mind that. It helps with her fears and Saix does feel better in knowing the creature that can measure up with some of the stronger members of the Organization will be accompanying her. "Of course." He replies, opens a portal and with Xion close behind, heads to the meeting place.

They arrive at Destiny Islands, Xion stops for a moment to watch the views, reminded of the promise… it feels like this promise was made ages ago and the idea of going to the beach with all of her friends… sounds so far now. Xion turns away from the waters and begins to follow Saix again with Swift walking right at her side. Xion stops when she spots who is waiting for them not far away: the Imposter— a sudden migraine hits her like a truck and memories she now knows belongs to Sora is assaulting her very mind.

Saix stops when that small creature begins to make a lot of those chirping sounds, his words to ask Xion if she could keep it down is forgotten when the chirping turns into deep growling. He spins around, seeing the creature has taken a bigger and much more dangerous looking form, between its clawed paws lie Xion, struggling with a nasty headache of a possible strike of Sora's memories. This is his homeworld after all.

Riku hadn't expected any of this. First this Xion proves to be the replica with Kairi's face, accompanied by that man that almost tore him to shreds in Wonderland, then when the replica collapsed, the weird cat transformed into a bigger one. What is that? It does not bear the scent of Heartless or Nobodies, it is darkness but something way more… for a lack of a better word, it smells like a certain companion of his. Okay, now he wishes Vanitas would wake from his small nap so he could tell him what's the deal with that thing. But it seems, he's on his own this time around. This creature, it is protecting the Kairi clone, glaring at him like an overprotective dog. Riku summons his weapon, but the blue-haired Nobody turns to him with: "Don't, this creature is stronger than it appears." Riku glances at the growling and glaring beast, noticing it is focusing on his blade. He dismisses his weapon and the growling ceases, but it continues to glare at him. "I take the one this creature is protecting is the one Naminé should see?" He asks the Nobody, again checking if his dark companion is awake, no, still out cold. '_Maybe I shouldn't have let him help me against those Heartless.' _but what's done is done, and knowing that blue-haired man's strength. Riku knows it will be for the best not to pick a fight with either him or the replica.

Saix nods to the boy's question and turns to the creature, he thought it was friendly to Xion because of her connection to Sora, but that creature clearly does not consider Riku an ally to its master, one it mistook Xion as. This is a long shot, but they can't wait for this thing to calm the hell down on its own. "Alright, Swift," Saix steps over to the creature, it snaps its attention to him, but fortunately it is not overly hostile to him like it was Riku. "I'm a friend of Xion, so, you better let me get to her." He continues to speak to it like he did to the family dog when it got too protective around him.

Swift stands like a statue over Xion, no longer baring its teeth. Instead, it has its focus sharply on him. Saix takes this as a good sign. "I'm not out to hurt her, Swift. You know that don't you?" He approaches the creature, and of such relief, Swift is allowing him to take Xion. The creature reverts into its cute form not long after. Saix casts it a look then walks over to Riku, letting him carry her. "Don't make me regret this." He warns Riku, not really caring that he cannot feel such things as regret.

"Right." Riku nods, opens a portal and leaves. The creature called Swift follows, Riku casts it a look, highly doubting it will stay friendly if Xion considers him, Naminé or Diz a threat, the thing seems to only trust the Nobody friend of Xion. He eyes the blue-haired Nobody, that one giving him a look he has to take this weird creature of darkness with him. Letting out a sigh, Riku does.

With them gone, Saix returns to the castle, and after having gotten hold on Roxas, both he and the boy waits for Axel's return. The red-haired does around midnight, dead tired, so it takes him a moment to notice them.

"Xion is with Naminé now." Saix tells him and puts a hand on Roxas shoulder's. "Good thing he's just as reckless and tenacious as you are."

"That's right— hey!" Roxas exclaims when he realizes that Saix was teasing him.

Axel laughs, and for once, he can get a proper rest. "That's the best news I got from these hellish weeks." He yawns and drops to his bed, "now I wanna sleep."

"Before you do…" Saix sights but he has to, in order for the rest of them to keep up the cover. "Unfortunately I have to report Xion's missing to Xemnas."

"Can't we keep it a secret?" Roxas asks.

Saix shakes his head, "If we do and is found out, Xemnas will punish us severely." and eyeing the young blond. "We cannot risk taking the chance."

Axel's expression darkens, he remembers the last time he and Saix went against Xemnas leadership… Saix still bears the scar after that day, but at least he could fight through whatever Xemnas did to him.

"Okay." Roxas quietly agrees, he does not like it, but by the sound of it, Saix knows what he is talking about.

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The next day, Xemnas calls all the members to assemble in Where Nothing Gathers, with everyone on their seat, Xemnas speaks. "Xion is gone."

Roxas knew this is what the meeting is about, but he's still nervous about the superior's next command.

He eyes Demyx when that one asks loudly; "What?! Whoa whoa, time out… you mean she, like flew the coop?" closely followed with Xaldin snorting as if this is a sick joke: "Hah, preposterous. What would drive her to choose her own demise?" and if Roxas already wasn't aware of why Xion left in the first place, then he would've reacted way differently by Xemnas command: "No one is to go looking for Xion without my express permission."

Roxas glances to Axel and Saix, the latter seems somewhat tense while Axel looks like his mind is somewhere else. It makes him wonder why Xemnas made such a command.

"All will be revealed when the time comes." Xemnas speaks.

Axel crosses his arms, pondering why Xemnas is not putting out a search for Xion. This troubles him. "Which means, if the time doesn't come, things can stay as they are." He speaks out and again troubled by this little fact.

"Lord Xemnas has spoken. Obey, or face your end." Saix speaks up, his words harsh but another message is said the moment he and Axel make eye contact: A warning to keep his head down. Axel breaks the contact by dropping his gaze slightly. Saix can relate; he is also unsure why Xemnas is letting Xion go like this, it's too convenient for his and Axel's plan and that troubles him. Did they make the wrong choice in letting Xion go with Riku?

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Xion wakes inside a room, unlike her own, this one is full of colors; instead of the endless night, the window shows a garden outside. Slowly getting up from bed, Xion wonders where she is, last thing she remembers is walking on that beach with Saix.

A chirp and Xion looks down, spotting that Swift is sitting right beside the bed. She claps the bed and Swift jumps up, Xion pulls it closer to her. "I'm glad you're with me." She tells this strange creature that reminds her of a friendly Heartless.

The sound of the door makes her turn, but instead of seeing one of her friends, the Imposter walks inside. Xion grows tense and Swift reacts by leaving her arms and sneers with darkness swirling around it.

"Easy, I'm not here to hurt you." Riku assures the girl, she still looks uncertain at him but at least 'Swift' has stopped sneering at him.

"Who… who are you?"

"Riku. Sora's friend."

"Sora?" Xion asks, the slight fear replaced with questions. Mostly to who this Sora is, she only knows she has his memories and is claiming Roxas's powers because of it, but that's all. "You know Sora?" The darkness around Swift fades and the creature is calm once again, barely reaction as she leaves bed and steps over to Riku.

Xion stops a few steps from the silver-haired and older boy. "Are you the one my friends said could help me?"

"No, but I know the one." Riku answers, and from what Naminé has told him, the memories of Sora trapped in Xion might be so entangled into her, that in order to wake his friend. She has to disappear, and after have seen a friendship between several that shouldn't have been able to feel such a thing. It makes him sad. "You have Sora's memories."

She nods, adding, "Some girl who looks very much like me. She seemed very special to him."

"Kairi." Riku answers, not surprised if these memories will be the key to wake Sora. "They belong to him."

"Riku… one of my friends said I was made to take Sora's powers, but…" Xion trails off.

Riku nods slowly. "You took more than just his powers. When his memories were scattered, some of them… found their way inside of you." Xion looks slightly away, didn't seem confused, more painfully aware of this fact. "Now, Sora has been put to sleep so we can piece together his memory… except…"

"You can't because part of it is inside of me," Xion realizes, it seems she's not only harming Roxas but Sora as well. "that means… he can't wake up."

"You got it." Diz was certain that they needed to hunt down whoever stole those memories, but as luck would have it, she came right to them, but with a bucket load of complications. Riku turns to where he can sense the creature, and remembering the warning the Nobody gave him. If any harm comes to this girl, then he will have to prepare himself for a nasty fight. Riku knows how far friends will go for each other, he saw that first hand with Sora… "Let me bring you to Naminé." He offers her his hand, Xion hesitates but takes it and he brings her to the one who should solve this issue.

Inside a white room sits a girl who looks like her, but has long blond hair and dressed in a white dress. "Please, take a seat." Xion does and Swift lies down at her feet. Petting the creature once, Xion asks this girl; "Are you… Naminé?"

"Yes."

"Can you… remove Sora's memories from me?" Xion asks, noticing a drawing of her with her three friends, she is reminded to why she wants these memories gone. "They do not belong to me, and although parts of me want to go back… wherever that is," Swift looks up to her, "I…" Xion puts a hand up to her chest. "I want to be with my friends more."

A sad expression appears on Naminé's face. "Xion… you are created from how Sora remembers Kairi. If you return your memories to him, then you will disappear." Xion jerks, shock and sadness of losing everything transparent in the replica's blue eyes, which makes this even harder. Still Naminé continues. "In exchange for not having your own memory. You're connected through other's memories. So when you disappear, no one will remember you… there won't be any "you" to remember." She goes quiet for a moment. "For all the powers I possess. I can't keep even one piece of the memory called "you" connected. All of your memories belong to Sora."

Not only will she disappear, but her friends won't even know she has ever been there when she will disappear, like she never was there to begin with… she…

_"Isn't that what you want? Go back to where you belong?"_ A voice asks, one familiar and sort of welcoming, but… _"All you need to do is sever all links you have to this realm."_

Xion leaps up from the chair, "No! I can't do that to them!" she cries, not sure if this great sadness is aimed at Naminé or the owner of that shapeless voice, all Xion knows that she is not ready to go back. She runs out from the room, Riku is outside, but she ignores him. Xion runs through the portal she has created. Xion needs to see those most important to her; she needs to be with her friends.

She returns to the castle, almost running into Xigbar.

"Whoa, welcome back poppet, didn't take you long coming back to return back to the fold." He smirks, it does falter for a moment when Xion's shape changes, taking the shape of a keyblade wielder he fought and taunted back in the day. He does not say it, of course, merely smirking down to her. "Heh, good thing too, we need extra hands completing Kingdom Hearts."

Xion merely nods and quietly leaves, she tries to walk calmly but it's hard, especially when reaching his room. Xion doesn't even knock, merely walking inside now that the Berserkers do not bother with her anymore. She finds Saix busy writing down paperwork, he's not looking up and clearly mistaking her for Axel in how he speaks. "If you're going to complain about work, stuff it, you got nothing on—"

"Saix." She speaks.

Saix drops his pen hearing her voice, he snaps his gaze to the door and finds Xion there with tears in her eyes. He has long been suspicious about her having a heart, but never thought he would see a solid proof such as tears, for only one able to feel would be able to cry. Saix leaves his seat and barely up, Xion has run over and hugs him tightly, bawling out her eyes. He stares down to the small figure holding him as if her life depended on it. It does remind him of back when he was human, em'_Lea was prone to tears once too.'/em _but since they became Nobodies and those marks under his eyes appeared, Axel hasn't shred a single tear since.

Saix hesitates, but at the command of Isa's memories, he gently hugs her and softly tells this trembling girl. "It's alright, let it all out."

Xion cries for a while and when she finally has run dry, she is able to explain what got her all upset. She tells him what Naminé told him and hearing that enrages Saix. If Xion has to disappear for Sora to regain those memories, then that boy can sleep for eternity for all he cares. But… if they do not remove the memory of Sora… Xion will…

Saix let Xion sleep in his bed that night, while she sleeps, he sits on the chair, thinking deeply about where they stand now. Xion is still stealing powers from Roxas, so she cannot be near him but removing those memories is out of the question as well. For now, Xion will have to stay, at least until he figures out what is the best course of action will be.

Leaving his room, Saix heads to Axel's and nudges the man awake. "We got a problem." and explains his childhood friend the situation.

_'Ugh… this is getting complicated fast.'_ That's at least what Axel thinks, but for the sake of his two friends, he will deal. Sitting up from bed. "So, what now?" He asks Saix, but his friend does not have any answers to their current problem. All Saix do know: "We cannot let Sora reclaim the memories trapped in Xion." Right, otherwise, she will cease to exist and they won't even know she is gone. That is a scary thought, which means it must be a hundred times worse if having a heart. But Saix is right, Riku and Naminé are now their enemies, for they will only use Roxas and Xion to wake Sora. "Right, but what should we do with Roxas and Xion?"

"For now, we have to keep them separated." Saix replies and they will do it like this. "You will keep an eye on Roxas, explain to him what is going on."

"Yeah, kid's getting troublesome if left out of the dark for too long."

Indeed, not that he blames Roxas. "and I will handle Xion. But if things turn for the worse," Saix turns his gaze to the window that shows Kingdom Hearts. "you have to take Roxas and stay as far away from the Organization as you can.

Axel nods slowly at what Saix said, he does not like the thought of running away, but if they don't figure anything else out. Then Xemnas might try to eliminate Roxas from the single reason he is Sora's Nobody and most likely the key to awaken Sora.

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Riku walks into the large room where Sora resides, he stares up to the pod, just able to see the figure of his friend. "I told myself I would do anything to restore your memory but…" He drops his head, after have seen the bond few of those Nobodies share, Riku is starting to feel conflicted. "If I do, then I will tear friends away from each other."

_"You do know he can't hear you."_

"I know," Riku replies softly and turns away from his friend, facing one who bears Sora's face. "But I don't think you can give me the right answer to this question. Considering what you did to your own brother's friends." Vanitas's eyes narrow, he looks angry but the hint of regret didn't go unnoticed. Riku sighs and slowly leaves the large room. "For Sora's memory to return. Two lives will have to be lost."

_"And two more if they push you too far." _Vanitas replies, before disappearing again from sight. Riku stops for a moment at the grave reminder, but he told himself he would do everything to get his friend back. Even if it means he won't be him anymore and be forced to banish his dark friend from his heart.

He wants to avoid this harsh truth, but it's starting to become so clear that not even the blindfold feels to be helping anymore.

* * *

**I'd long decided to change Xion's whole attitude against her own destruction. In the canon timeline, she choose to sacrifice herself for the sake of Roxas; she just couldn't see any other options. While in Change of Fate timeline, Xion has support from all of her friends, making her determent to stay, mostly so the others' hard work to help her wouldn't have been for nothing. It means the confrontation between Axel and Xion is not going to happen, it's sort of bitter-sweet for me, cuz I really love that scene. Maybe I can make it somewhere else in this AU series.**


	19. Desertion

**This chapter's title might be quite on the nose, but it's hard to sometimes come with a chapter name.**

* * *

Saix got called to a meeting with Xemnas and Xigbar, and ever since his eyes returned to their original color, these meetings always left him with a bad sense, like his old scar has reopened or something.

This time is no exception, Xigbar starts the meeting with a remark that Xion seems to change shape, depending on who looks at her. This catches Saix attention, "And who do you see when looking at her?" he asks the one-eyed man coldly, wondering if Roxas sees the same face as he does? Saix and Axel both see the face of a girl they met inside the castle and every time he looks at her, he gets the sense that the search is over.

Xigbar laughs, but not at the second-in-command's question. "Oh so, moon-boy can talk besides mission giving." Saix eyes narrow, and again he sees that the orbs are blue, not yellow. Not really a surprise though, brat has always been good at resisting others' influence. But he had hoped what Xemnas did to Saix would've stuck, apparently not.

"I don't see the point in talking if there's no reason for it." Saix retort back, the older man merely laughs.

"Elaborate." Xemnas commands Xigbar.

"Sora has a pretty powerful effect on her is all I'm saying." Xigbar tells the top guy, pretty sure when the rare times Xemnas looks at poppet, that he sees an old friend's face.

"Yes, it was not supposed to gain a mind of its own— nor become the person we see." Xemnas admits, but that change has in fact, given them something useful. "But in the end, it only proves that the puppet is the more worthy vessel."

Vessel? What vessel is Xemnas talking about? For some reason, it makes his scar itch like crazy and Saix really has to resist scratching the spot and stay still to these uncomfortable meetings.

"Saix," Xemnas eyes the second-in-command, meeting those bluish eyes, staring at him the same way before he gave the man that scar. Fear is holding the man back, but sooner or later, it will change. "from now on, Roxas and Xion will be on missions together. Exposing her to Roxas, and Sora will never wake."

He really has to keep a calm façade here, quietly obeying on something he knows will only harm those two kids further. But he knows the prize if he disobeys, knows he won't stand a chance against Xemnas. And yet.

'_I won't let you take my friends away, not as long as I live.'_

The illusion of anger towards one who is daring to go after his friends is strong, but Saix forces these whispers of emotions away. '_…haven't I learned my lesson already…?' _He cannot fight Xemnas, the man is too drops his gaze, breaking the eye contact with Xemnas "Understood." and has to asks. "What about Roxas?" That boy shares a deep connection to Sora, and might also be a key to Sora's awakening, not that he cares much about that boy, but he is Roxas's Somebody.

"Both of them have connections to Sora, but we only need one of them under our thumb." Xemnas replies with his usual dull melancholy voice, slowly reaching his hand out to Roxas seat. "Whether Xion takes from Roxas the rest of what he has to give… or, whether he destroys her first and takes back what is his."

Xigbar watches Saix, grinning in how tense the man gets at this speech, he has suspected Moon-boy got a soft spot for poppet, so let's see if the man will obey or send Xion away again. If the latter happens, then they better find a new second-in-command.

"No matter how, Sora's power will belong to us." Xemnas turns to Saix again, "Prepare the two for their next mission," with the loss of Zexion, Saix is the second-best choice in illusion magic. Saix merely nods and he teleports off.

"Looks like Moon-boy is getting reluctant in performing his duty."

Xemnas glances at Xigbar; the man elaborate. "I have seen him and Axel converse more than usual and knowing those two, they are up to something." Is that so? Has Saix not only noticed the presence by abandoning his goal? But rejected it in exchange with something as fiddle and weak as friendship? Losing Saix as a vessel cannot be tolerated, but even with this infuriating rejection, Saix is still doing what he is told. "If he is to stray from our plans, drastic action must be taken."

Xigbar smirks, and here he thought he would get bored. "And I know just the right leash to keep this dog in check." Knowing Saix, the man is very aware the hammer will come down after the mission, not a surprise, Xigbar is well aware Moon-boy here won't allow Roxas and Xion to kill one another. He will make Axel meddle and presumably try and run. 'H_e never seems to learn the lesson.'_ Unlike the last time, Saix was still a kid, and this time, he packs a lot more punch in his attacks. Yeah, they will all put up one hell of a fight, but that makes it so much more amusing.

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Saix does not like it, but he puts the illusion spell onto both Roxas and Xion's mission sheets. He sends Xion off first, then after Luxord and Xaldin, sends Roxas to the same world. When Axel walks over to get his, Saix tells him quietly, "They have been staged, stop it and get Roxas away." he hands the sheet, but in reality, a notebook filled with coordinates for all the worlds the Organization has recorded down over the years, it will give Axel a better field to move on.

Axel eyes the sheet, it looks like a simple mission paper but from what Saix had said, he knows this is not a mission sheet. It is time… He eyes his friend; Saix merely opens a portal, but before leaving though. "Good luck." Axel tells him softly, knowing his friend will be stuck on the enemy line. Right before the portal closes, he hears Saix reply: "Could say the same to you… Lea"

Leaving the realm between worlds, Axel ends up in Halloween Town and here, the illusion spell fades, revealing the notebook with coordinates to at least fifty worlds. Axel stuffs the book into his pocket and turns to the sound of clashing metal, he better hurry before one of them gets seriously hurt.

Axel runs over to the area, spotting Xion and Roxas fighting against each other, but they don't know that. Both have quite a strong illusion spell over them. He summons his own weapons and uses them to block both of the kids' keyblades, right before they make contact with the other. "STOP, both of you!" He shouts, the sudden interruption breaks the illusion and Roxas and Xion realize they haven't been fighting a Heartless but one another.

"Xion?"

"Roxas? W-what are you doing here? The Heartless I was fighting— it was you?" Xion asks, just as dumbfounded as her blond friend.

"This mission was a setup." Axel explains them both, the two gasp in shock, he continues, not at all happy about it, nor what will happen afterward. "It was rigged so you two would battle each other."

"They would do that?" Xion asks in a sad voice, and knowing Saix is the one who hands out missions, "Did Saix know?"

Axel nods slowly but before either gets the wrong idea about his old pal. "He was forced to play along. If not then he would've been turned into a Dusk. Xion," Axel eyes the girl and tells her; "RTC, tell them you destroyed the Heartless." He then turns to Roxas, eyes hard and body tense from how that one will react to this major change. Roxas does not like change but this is one needed to happen. "Roxas, you will go with me."

Something is really up, Axel has never been this tense before, "Axel, what's going on?" but the only answer he gets: "I'll explain later, but right now, you need to trust me." Roxas nods slowly, it's hard but Axel has shown he cares for both his and Xion's well being, so he will trust him on this one.

Axel opens a portal, signs with a head bob to go in there, Roxas does and along with Axel, leaves Xion behind.

Xion returns to the castle, makes the report and leaves. She did stop when Xigbar suddenly speaks from his spot against one of the walls. "You're pretty far gone, aren't you?" She turns to the one-eyed man, confused about what he is talking about. Xigbar smiles to her in a manner that sends a bad case of shiver down her spine. "You can't hear their voices anymore, your control is fading as Sora is dragging you closer."

"What are you…?" but before she can complete her question, Xigbar leaves. Xion spots some sort of bug on the man's shoulders, but when it turns to look at her… it has ice-blue eyes. Xion blinks but is unsure if that really was one of them; honestly, she is more troubled by what Xigbar said … Xion hurries to where the Organization has stored the kangaroo Keeper. He is located in a large room, and even though he can escape, he won't leave due to Demyx's music.

Since they found out Demyx can control this Keeper, he has put on the duty to 'babysit' as he calls it. The water bending Nobody does not seems to mind, for as Xion walks into the room, Demyx is sitting on the chilling kangaroo's back, strumming on his sitar with a smile on his lips.

The Keeper has his eyes closed, clearly enjoying the music. Xion walks over to him, and the eyes open when she puts a hand onto one of the arms. "Hey, how are you doing?" She asks. The kangaroo turns to her, stares and… nothing. Xion's eyes wide in shock and horror, realizing what Xigbar meant. She can no longer hear this creature's voice!

Not sure why, but that upsets Xion a lot more than it should've, as if a huge part of herself has been lost. She breaks down in tears before the Keeper, not even a friendly nose nudge can cheer her up. '_I'm losing myself to Sora's memory.' _The ability to hear the Keepers, it was one of the things she considered truly her unique trait, now replaced with pictures of Sora's memory. '_do I truly have to go back?' _Xion is scared of this approaching doom of her, well aware that if she is to perish, no one will remember to miss her. It's like she never existed… A sound of a portal, followed by Xigbar's voice: "Get out of here, Demyx."

That tone is enough for him to know it's not for debate. Xiggy is rarely serious, so when he is; best not to pull off any shenanigans. Demyx teleports away, none the wiser that Xion had been in the room as well.

With them alone, Xigbar turns his gaze down to the crying replica. The scorpion shift position on his shoulder. "Let me tell you something about yourself; you are the anchor of these creatures." He puts a hand onto the kangaroo Keeper, it flinches at the touch but does not move. But his eye is on the grey scorpion on his right shoulder, watching the crying girl with intense ice-blue eyes. "If you were to disappear, then every Keeper will disappear as well."

Xion freezes up hearing that fact about herself, she looks up to Xigbar. "How do you know about this?"

"I've done my share of reading Vexen's journals." Xigbar replies, he removes his hand from the kangaroo and slowly walks around the puppet. "All of you is about taking what does not belong to you, and right now, the core that makes out your heart, is aiming this power to take as much as you can from Sora." He stops before the poppet, shape in the form of Ventus and stares horrified up to him. Xigbar huff and smirks, "But never would I have thought you got the juice to communicate with a Keeper. That is a very unique and useful ability, one more than your main objective."

Xigbar puts a hand on her head, but unlike when Saix or Axel do it, this gesture does not make her feel any better around the Organization's sharp-shooter. It makes her feel small and scared, something she usually didn't do around Xigbar who always gave off the aura of being that laidback and bit off his rocker Nobody.

"Xion, I can replace your core with another memory and release you from Sora." As expected this got the replica's full attention, got the bait, now to let this one bite onto the hook. "It will make us want Roxas alive, and we can overlook the small act of defiance. Xemnas has shown interest in the Keepers, so if you were to get us more:" Removing his hand from Xion's head, Xigbar steps back and offers her his hand. "You can all stay together. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, don't you think?"

Hearing that she does not have to go back, does not have to sacrifice everything for a boy she only knows through the memories trapped inside her body. That she and her friends can go back to how things were, it blinds Xion and without a thought, takes Xigbar's hand and thus his offer. For in her mind, what difference would it make that the Organization got hold on more Keepers? She notices that the blue-eyed bug of Xigbar seems relieved, but she is more focused at the armored heart symbol she has spotted on its back.

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The portal brings them to a world Roxas has never seen before; the air feels wet and surrounded by a very dense forest. Axel closes the portal, and starts walking, not even slowing down through the blockage of leaves, Roxas follows, confused about why his friend brought them here. "Where are we?"

"A world the Organization no longer deem worth their time." Axel replies, busier wrecking his brain in how to make Roxas stay put, the kid is starting to get frustrated in what is going on and he can't have Roxas go to the castle or Twilight Town. Spotting a house up in the trees, Axel heads over there. After having checked the place for wild animals this world is prone to have, Axel tells the confused boy. "You need to stay here until I get back." He has to be certain this world no longer has any sign of Organization influence. It will go faster without the Heartless magnet that is Roxas's keyblade.

"Axel, what is going on?" Roxas demands, he is confused and getting tired of being left in the dark. Axel turns slightly away, avoiding eye contact. No, he is not taking a silent treatment! Not after what has just happened in Halloween Town. "Answer me, Axel! Why did the Organization want me and Xion to fight? Is it's because we're both connected to Sora? I don't even know Sora!" He shouts, and looking at his trembling hands from the fire that is burning inside his chest. "Saix said Sora is my Somebody, but I don't understand what that means." He glares up to the silent Axel, watching him with an unreadable face. "I want answers! And if not from you, I will find someone else who can give them to me." and right now, Roxas is frustrated enough to make that threat a reality.

…Why do things have to be so complicated… Axel sighs, the reminder of what Saix told him about their plans if they ever went this route. He has to keep the kid close, even if he does not like what it means to do it. "Roxas… will you trust me if… if I tell you what a Somebody means?" Axel asks, he can't make himself tell Roxas everything; in his eyes, it will only make the kid ask further questions. But… if he has to share his past to Roxas in order to make him stay, then… so be it.

The fire subdues in Roxas chest, it's not truly the answers he wants, but at least it's something. "yeah," Axel sighs again and only there he realizes how… broken Axel looks, it catches him off guard.

"Alright." The red-haired muses, opens a portal and walks inside. Roxas hesitates but follows, confused when the portal has brought them to a sort of city, it reminds him a bit like the one below the castle, except these buildings look like they have taken one hell of a beating. Then Roxas notices that these buildings once held brighter colors but it has faded for some reason. He looks up to Axel, the man looks to be in pain. "Axel? Are you… are you alright?"

"No, but you wanted answers." Axel replies and nods to the house, "You go inside, I…" even without a heart, it's painful, maybe more so as he's only a shadow of the boy who once lived in there. "I can't."

Confused as to why Axel can't but too curious about how this house can bring the answers to what a Somebody is, Roxas slowly steps into the house. At first, he only sees destroyed furniture, signs of battle and a thick layer of dust. He has been on enough recon missions to know that Heartless have been here and that whoever lived in this house hasn't been around for a very long time. Roxas scans his surroundings, unsure of how this will— his eyes stops at a shelf, on it is a picture of one who looks to be his size, beaming back at him. Roxas stares; he knows that face, but… why does Axel look like him? And Roxas has never seen him smile like that before. Roxas walks over to the picture, picks up the frame and stares at this frozen image of who looks like Axel, but… it can't be him, right? Now close to the shelf, Roxas finds more pictures, some with this Axel that looks like his size, then some at where he is way smaller. A single picture holds an image of this same sized Axel, eating sea-salt ice cream with one who looks very much like Saix, boy sure has the same calm stare, but it looks a bit weird without the scar.

This confuses Roxas a lot. There are other people on the pictures as well, a woman with the same red hair as Axel and others having a man with spiky, yet not as wildly as Axel's hair but has similar features. "Who are these people?" He wonders looking up to a large picture showing this smaller Axel with these two adults, who all look happy. Taking a picture of the two looking very much like Axel and Saix. Roxas leaves the shelf to check out the rest of this house. Everything gets investigated, the bathroom, all of the rooms, even the kitchen. None of the rooms have any clues for his question. All but one.

Roxas stops at the door, on it spells the words 'Lea's room'. Quite confused, Roxas walks inside. Standing in the middle of this very messy room, Roxas is not sure what to feel about this place. At his feet is a toy with a flame design, in many ways, it looks like Axel's weapons. The clothing lying around is bright and in the same warm colors as the sun. Walking over to the table, Roxas reads the papers briefly but they don't make much sense, only that Roxas gets the feeling this Lea got very annoyed at them from how there are several crude drawings around the text. He removes these papers and finds a much neater drawing of a map, but it does not make much sense either. This place does not make much sense at all. Roxas leaves the house, finding Axel standing up against the wall far off the house, walking over to him, Roxas admits, "I don't see what this has to do with a Somebody."

Axel does not move from his spot, nor meeting his gaze. "What did you find?" He asks strangely distant.

"Only a place that once held people, but they haven't been there for a long time. I take Heartless chased them out." Roxas summarize, the same way he was taught from his recon missions with the older members. "Something was a bit weird though," He admits "one of the rooms; Lea's room, I don't know why, but it reminded me of you." the sound of a sigh and Roxas turns back to Axel, he's getting worried in how his friend is reacting to all of this.

"Did you find any pictures?"

"Y-Yeah." Roxas nods and shows him one of them, Axel takes it but all he does is stares at it in that sad manner. "Axel… who is that?" Roxas asks, pointing at the one on the picture that looks like his fire-wielding friend and now that he is on the subject. "Who is Lea?" Axel closes his eyes, like he's in great pain. "Axel?" Roxas is starting to worry for his friend, all of this seems to be greatly affected by this place.

"Roxas… Lea is… Lea is my Somebody…"

Huh? Wait what? "Huh? He's your… Axel, what do you…" then something hits him, what if… "a Somebody, is that the same as a human?" Roxas asks, Axel nods that he guessed correctly. So if this Lea is Axel's Somebody, does that mean. "When you were human, when you had a heart. You were Lea?"

"You got it." Axel nods slowly, he gestures to the house. "That was my— Lea's home." Returning the picture of his teenager self to Roxas "But it was a very long time ago." Too long, and only this past year, Axel has been able to remember his human past more vividly. All thanks to Roxas and Xion's unique ability to emote like a real person.

"So the one on the picture, that's you?" Roxas asks and looking at the blue-haired boy. "and that's Saix's Somebody, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

That does explain why Axel and Saix seem to be able to communicate without using words, does not explain one mystery. "But… he's not much taller than me."

This Axel can't help but chuckle, sometimes Roxas is so naïve. "Roxas, of course, I was smaller, that's what being a kid means." Roxas stares confused down to the picture, makes Axel wonder how much he's wrecking his brain on this concept.

"Will I get taller too?"

"Yeah, I think you still have some growing to do." Axel replies, the smile does quickly fade as his eyes lands on his old home, pretty sure he would spill tears if not for his lack of heart. "Everyone in the Organization has the memories of their Somebody, all except;" he eyes Roxas "you." the kid blinks and Axel opens another portal, this time bringing him to Sora's home, here he gestures to the scenery. "Look around, tell me what you feel about this place."

Roxas does and do realize. "I have dreams about this place. It feels like I belong here, and yet…" scanning the beach further, the sense of belonging is replaced with the promise of coming to the beach with his friends. "All I can think about is the promise of going to the beach with you guys at our next vacation."

"Does any of this defines who you are?" Axel presses

Has to think deep and hard about that question, but it only leads to another question. "Why should this define me? I don't live here." This isn't his home, granted he does not feel like The World That Never Was is home either but… Twilight Town does, it's where all of his best memories have been made.

Axel crosses his arms, pointing out much to Roxas confusion. "That's what makes you different from the rest of us." He gestures to the beach "Even though it was the first time I'd ever visited my Somebody's home, I still thought it was mine, the world— I thought it was my home. But you" the green eyes return back and locks onto Roxas blue eyes. "You do not think Sora's home as your home. He does not define you like Lea is defining me, how my Somebody's memories control all of my decisions."

All of this is very confusing, more so when he does not know who this Sora is, only that he should feel like him but according to Axel, he does not. "Why is that?" He asks Axel. "Why does Sora not control my actions like you say Lea does you?"

"I don't know." Axel admits, Roxas is a mystery on his own, he lets the boy think on the conversation for a moment, then opens a portal. "Now your end of the bargain."

Roxas casts one look at the island that is very important to Sora, then follows him back to the jungle's treehouse. The kid looks subdued, good, hopefully Roxas will stay put and not cause further headaches. Axel turns to leave, but does stop when Roxas suddenly says; "I'm sorry." he eyes the kid and Roxas muses, "For making you go through this." How the hell is Roxas able to do this? Seems so genuine in the act of feeling sorry for him, not something he can think about at the moment. "I haven't told anyone about my Somebody; the baggage of his memories." Knowing that how much he wants it, Axel can never become that person. All he can do… is follow the memories he was created from. Axel leaves the treehouse. "Don't leave."

With nothing else to do, Roxas begins to check this place, then, he takes a seat outside, watching this huge forest and the setting sun. He pulls out the picture of Axel's somebody, back when he was a kid, "I have never seen him smile like that before… is it because he was human?" Roxas wonders out loud. He hopes Axel will tell him more about his Somebody when he returns, maybe give him some better answers to how he was as human.

* * *

**Remember the scene where Roxas confronts Axel about who he is? Well, here's the Change of Fate version of it. This time, Roxas trusts Axel because the man is giving him, at least, some answers to all of his questions. **

**Guess what Xigbar had as a pet all this time, makes one wonder why it hasn't shown up in earlier chapters. There is a reason for it, but that will only be revealed in future books.**


	20. Anchored to the World

Been put into a sort of tube container, the moment this water liquid submerged her, Xion became paralyzed. She is still conscious but her mind got too numb to fully register the people standing before her. She does know that Xigbar is there, watching her in a manner she has never seen him before, serious and having a sharp stare in his yellow eye. If she wasn't so numb in this strange state of being trapped between sleep and awake, she would've been scared of what was going through that man's head.

It takes a while, but she notices Xemnas has walked into the room, if he's displeased about her being there, that Xion does not know. The two men are talking, mostly Xigbar but she is unable to decipher the muffled sounds into proper words, barely able to intercept what the expressions on their faces mean. She does notice that Xemnas nods, is he approving of something? Then Xigbar turns to the computer before the tube, does something and then… pain, sheer agony. Xion wants to scream, cry for them to stop, but she can't move her mouth other than slightly opening it. She feels like someone uses icy cold pliers to tear into her skin, pulling out parts of her body, leaving it cold and trembling in pain. This happens a hundred of times before it slowly ends, leaving her torn body cold and yet hot from the invisible injuries only she can feel. Xion wants to cry but any tears will only disappear in the liquid that surrounds her. The room fades away and Xion can feel herself falling.

_A prison, small and unable to get out from. Been there since leaving home, but suddenly, one day, the prison is opened by someone. Did not have the eyes to see, only the unique light coming from the rescuer. Leaving the prison, using the light from the rescuer, she was able to shape a form and get better around in this new place. She meets two boys, they both look so familiar, but she cannot stay long in this corporal shape, has to rest, resist going back home. She needs to find a body. But wants to find those two again, wants to see this realm and experience what it means to be human. _

_ She meets them again, introduces themselves, and tries to ask for her name, but she has none, so they call her 'friend.'  
__They are very kind to her and wish to stay around them longer than her corporeal form will allow. Meetings are always short, but it made her resist the urge to return home._

Wait… those two boys, they look like Axel and Saix, but the names… it isn't the names she knows them by, nor has she seen her two friends ever be that lively before. How come?

_She sees people, some having familiar faces but all lacking the Organization cloak, Xaldin and Xigbar fights her, brings her to people dressed in white. One of them looks like Xemnas, but she didn't feel any fear towards him. Unable to comprehend such emotions. They did a lot of things to her, but she wasn't affected without a body. Still, she wanted to escape her new prison._

_Xigbar approached her, broke the larger prison and before she could go searching for a vessel, he caught and took her away. _

_ He and someone else brought her to that woman she dreamt about before, behind her was the Cobra Keeper. He handed her to the woman and she brought her to Castle Oblivion._

_ A new vessel, one that will let her stay. The already fragile memories she held got scattered, the anchor got lost, but a memory of the same pure light that released her, bounded her to this realm. That memory, it's so strong. Even if she wanted, she would be unable to leave this realm unless her vessel would be destroyed. _

What was that? Is it how she was created?

_She is suddenly standing on a roof inside a town where the night is eternal, lit up by neon lights and pretty lampposts. _

_This is her home. _

_Before her stands a boy, taller than her, messy blond hair and light-colored clothing. She knows him… that's..._

_"Are you coming home now?" He asks her, and wish a lazily hand-wave, "You have been gone much longer than I expected."_

_ She hesitates, parts of her want to fully go back, leave the pain behind but… Her mind goes back to the three wonderful friends she made, the many people and the lives she has observed through her many missions. If she rejects the gifts of darkness, then she will reject the gifts of light too. "I can't…" She replies him, taking a step back. If she breaks all of the links, her friends will forget. She won't remember them either even if they came to her home. "I have friends waiting for me." _

_ The boy closes his eyes with a soft sigh, he does not look sad, but not happy either. More a glum acceptance. "Better not leave them waiting then." He replies, she smiles weakly, thankful he respects her wishes. Turning around, she leaves her home once again, hurrying back before the already weak link between the two realms would break. _

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The screen begins to flash red in a warning that they are losing the replica. Xigbar curses and tries to stop it, but without a core, nothing is keeping poppet bound to this realm other than her sheer willpower to stay, maybe it's good she got so attached to those three. Otherwise, she would've gone back. He puts the machine on overload in keeping the body from expiring, at least long enough for a new core to be installed into Xion. With her more or less stable, Xigbar turns to Xemnas. "The leash is ready."

"Good, we cannot have Saix to stray away from his destiny." Xemnas replies, he gazes up to Xion for a moment. And although he does not have much knowledge about the ancient and powerful beings going by the name of Keeper, he does know that having them under his control is much more beneficial than keeping Sora from regaining his memories. He turns back to Xigbar. "We gave him a reason to follow us into the darkness, now it is time to complete the search and with the girl at his side, Saix will follow us in his need to protect his newfound friend."

Xigbar laughs at how stupid Saix has truly been, the girl he searched for inside the castle. Yeah sure it was Xion alright but kid followed her straight into the darkness and looks where that got him. And with this new core, they will keep Saix nicely chained up like a good dog. After all, Isa has always been stupidly overprotective of those he calls friends.

He teleports off to find the rebellions man and getting him to follow is easy enough, and as expected, Saix gets quite angry seeing Xion like this, as she still holds whatever form the man sees her.

"What are you doing to her?!" Saix exclaims at what sight meets him, so this is where Xion has been these two days. He thought she had run away, but in reality, Xemnas is doing some sick experiment on her. He summons his father's claymore and with the moon's power already inside this weapon, strikes at Xigbar as he stands closet and Saix wants to take that one out first so to even the odds. However, the Freeshooter teleports away right before the weapon makes an impact, and the next, Xemnas strikes at him. Saix succeeds in blocking the Eternal Blades with his claymore, keeping them from leaving yet another scar on him. Whatever fear his child self held towards this man, gone and replaced with the great need to protect Xion from this madman.

Xemnas smiles, a cold, sinister smile. "Ah, ever the valiant. You held the very same stare right when you protected Axel, and in return, his mistake gave you that very mark."

The reminder stings a lot, Saix hates the scar he got from Xemnas back when he could still be considered a child, but unlike the last time they stood face to face. "I am stronger now, Xemnas." He sneers, eyes starting to glow like the moon as he calls upon the power the celestial being gives him. "And without a heart; I cannot fear you!" He pushes the leader of the Organization back, summons magic in his free hand and throws a slow spell onto Xigbar, stopping him from meddling into this fight. He then charges at Xemnas, remembering the small lesson on how to use the Surge, he focuses this power into his weapon and creates a powerful shockwave when he slams it onto Xemnas. The superior tried to block it, but he clearly underestimated his strength and ended up wounding his right hand. Xemnas waves his blades out after him, forcing Saix to retreat, but not for long as the second he notices an opening, he leaps at the other man and clearly learned his lesson; Xemnas blocks the claymore with a powerful shield spell.

No longer smiling, Xemnas stares up to one he made to his second-in-command. "I admit, your strength is impressive, very much the worth of the rank giving you, but," He uses his element of Nothingness to fire beams of the element right at the man, slicing his body and tearing the cloak so even if Saix would, he cannot teleport without risking his existence. Saix falters but stubbornly stays on his feet. Wanting to prove that the moon's power is stronger than it seems, but it is nothing compared to the Nothingness that this whole world is made of. He surrounds the man in a barrier and strikes him with at least ten laser blades.

Only just able to keep his body from shattering into oblivion, Saix drops to the floor, too injured to even hold his weapon. He knew there was no chance in defeating Xemnas, but he could at least die knowing he didn't go down without a fight. He looks up to the other man, wanting Xemnas to know that even if he couldn't feel such emotions, he is not afraid to die at this man's hand.

Looking into those eyes, something in him stirs, a memory of dealing with a cheeky boy appears, the same back when he attempted to turn Saix into a potential vessel. It keeps Xemnas from hurting Saix as the larger part of him wants, so instead he asks the defiant glaring man. "I wonder, will she be thinking the same?" Xemnas steps aside, allowing Saix to see the replica. Saix's teal eyes shift from a fearless glare to worry for Xion's well being. It's infuriating to see how far this potential vessel has strayed but fortunately, it can still be fixed. "Xion is dying as Sora is claiming his imprisoned memories, but you can fix it." Saix looks back up to him and Xemnas tells his misguided vessel. "Submit yourself to Xion, let your memory become her core and your little friend will live."

But in exchange for it, he has to give up his own freedom… Saix truly wishes he can say no, but… Xaldin's right, this new awoken side of him, the need to protect those he cares about… it's a weakness. Saix drops his head in utter defeat, not only at this crushing fact but at knowing he will become a slave to Xion and she might not even know it. Xemnas has tried this before, that dark figure in his mind, it was of Xemnas doing but this time… Saix will let it happen and he won't fight against it. "… Alright."

Xemnas smiles, the vessel has returned back to their fold. Now he only needs the keyblade Roxas wields and everything is, as it should.

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Naminé jerks her head up, feeling a flood of Sora memories returning to him, but, she can also sense that his Nobody is claiming several of the pieces as well. This is worrying, more so when she can feel these memories once was trapped by Xion. The replica's body has been destroyed, people are forgetting about her and soon, not even she would know who Xion is. Naminé feels a great sadness that such a cruel fate would meet this other girl, more than ever she wish— the earth starts to shake and Naminé topples over, caressing her head from the fall, Naminé begins to look around of what is causing the tremors.

She tenses up when a dark portal appears, and Diz trots out from it.

The man looks quite stressed, and he walks over to Sora's pod, and goes onto the computer keeping Sora in his sleep. A spike of horror strikes Naminé. "What are you doing?" She demands fearfully that Diz is trying to wake Sora, if he does, no one will remember him, and Sora will barely be able to wield a keyblade due to Roxas has claimed all of his abilities. "You can't wake him, not like this!" She cries and runs over to stop him.

Diz shoves the girl away, telling her harshly. "If I do not wake him now, he might not ever." Another tremor and water are starting to leak into this very room. Both he and Naminé turn their gazes upward, only he knows what is causing all of this havoc. "Some kind of creature appeared, attacking the mansion. Riku is doing everything in his power to give us time, but…" He trails off, whatever that creature is, it is much more powerful than any Heartless and even a Nobody.

Shocked on what Diz said, Naminé puts a hand up to her chest, afraid of what they might have to do in these next minutes. She looks up to where the sound of battle can be heard and quietly prays that Riku can defeat the newly arrived threat.

Outside the mansion, Riku leaps off the roof, dodging a spear made out from water, he lands onto the wall, staring at the huge creature in the shape of a unicorn with flowing hair, black markings on the head and legs and wave lines down the face and back. This creature turns to him, glaring with its pale blue eyes with feline pupils. It lunges forward and Riku knows that trying to block that fast approaching horn is impossible, so he jumps away and slashes out after its face. Does get a hit in, but his combo gets broken when the unicorn turns and his blade hits the red with the shades of gold armor it has around the neck. Water appears again and Riku again has to take the run from the rain of spears this creature throws at him.

'_what is that thing? It does not have the scent of darkness, but I don't sense any light from it either.' _He blocks one of the creature's gold hooves but cannot get a hit it due to that long tail blocking his view.

Riku, only in last second, sees the unicorn's head come right at him, before he gets headbutted so hard that he flies into a tree, and before he can get up, a geyser of water erupts underneath him, slapping his weapon out from his hands. In a desperate attempt, Riku fires a dark ball at the charging creature, but the unicorn does not seem to notice, for that strike didn't even slow it down.

'_Why do I always have to save your ass?'_

Then, right as the horn is about to piece Riku, that creature that decided to crash here, now in its bigger form jumps right in between where it roars at the unicorn. A dark wind is flying around the smaller creature claws, and much to Riku's surprise. The unicorn stops, rear and does a rather terrifying horse screech at this creature of darkness, but the cat/lizard monster only roars back, lunging forward and strike at the air between the two. The unicorn, shockingly backs away, dropping its head in submission, then turns around and leaps back to the courtyard.

Dumbfounded of what has just happened, Riku gets up, and a hand on his chest. "It belongs to you?"

'_Of course it does, idiot.' _Vanitas replies in his usual snarky manner and Riku is pretty sure his dark friend is rolling his eyes. '_And if you're going to ask how it got created, I am going to pummel you with dark lighting.' clearly not a subject he does not want to speak about._

So Riku does not ask, even though he really wants to but he and his friend from the darkness has this unspoken agreement of not sticking their nose into the other's private matters. "Thanks." Riku instead says, Vanitas's pet merely snorts, apparently not his biggest fan. Ignoring it, Riku gets up and follows the huge unicorn return back to the mansion. He sees just last second the other creature reverts back to a ring, which is placed onto the unicorn statue outside in the courtyard. Riku slowly walks over to the statue holding the ring, hesitates but takes it, feels a foreign energy pulsing from the ring, and is hostile towards him. He quickly returns the ring back onto the stature, having no wish in doing a rematch with that unicorn.

Riku then teleports back downstairs and is glad that Diz was ready to wake Sora but has waited for the battle's outcome. "It's gone." He tells both Diz and the incredibly worried Naminé. "but," He winches in pain from the strike he received from that creature, "I wouldn't go into the backyard."

"_Unless you want to get mauled by a prancing unicorn." _Vanitas remarks, making sure that Naminé could hear him as well.

Naminé smiles weakly at the dark boy's remark, does disappear and she looks up when Diz asks: "Did you defeat it?" Riku shakes his head and explains this mysterious but irate man. "No, it was too strong but it backed off thanks to our little monster." Riku hesitates but does say he has observed this whole mansion has a lot of unicorn statues and it emerges from the back garden. "I think it was merely protecting its home."

Diz does not reply,in all honestly, he has been wary about this place since that man who suggested to him this place confronted him about a specific discovery. He does not dare seek out the protector of Twilight Town, but it makes him wonder if that creature was set as a trap. "Why did it only strike now?" Why has it waited for so long?

Riku is not sure, but he did notice that during his fight with that unicorn, it did stare at him like it was watching his every move and how he could sense its awareness when touching the ring… '_something tells me it has been observing us this whole time, and decided it does not like having us— or at least me as a guest of the mansion.' _

_ "Apparently it didn't like the smell you gave off."_

Riku quirks a smile, while Naminé blinks confused at this inside joke, but Vanitas might have a point. It only bothered to show up after he has been around for a couble of days, and hopefully, he is indeed the problem. Turning to Diz, Riku admits. "I don't know, but best we don't aggravate it." Right about there, he notices a change in Sora's stats, they have increased, which means more of his memory has returned. Riku turns to Naminé, but instead of being relieved that Sora is once again regaining his memory, she looks sad. "What's wrong?" He asks as he does not like to see her like this.

"Xion is gone…" Naminé replies, but by how confused Riku looks, it's clear the few memory he had about her is long gone. She too can feel that the single meeting with this girl is slipping away, makes Naminé sadly wonder; how long before Xion's friends will forget about her?

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_Holding what now will keep her bound to this realm, a memory from one of them, but it's not only from him, the two others are holding this memory as well, connecting them all to one another. It's the very foundation to how their friendship started and now will be what keeps her anchored to this realm. "Others might forget, but we won't." She smiles, no more feeling like the puppet Xemnas wanted her to be, in fact, she feels more like a particular flower. "Remembrance, that's who I am now."_

* * *

**I took Xion's new back-story from Kingdom Hearts 3, but this isn't by any means a headcanon, I highly doubt the mysterious girl was Xion. in fact, I think it's either one named Skuld or Kairi, for apparently, NO ONE seems aware that Kairi once lived in Radiant Garden! Sorry, small nitpick on my part. **

**Since this is an AU, I am pretty much changing the Lore as I see fit. so Xion's whole fate will be a lot different compared to the canon lore. **


	21. Heart of a Nobody

**just a reminder: in this lore I have going. A Nobody cannot grow a heart, but that does not stop a certain someone from breaking that rule. **

**(and I am SO rolling with it!) **

**This chapter has been rewritten several times before I got satisfied, the outcome has changed a lot as well, but the middle of it hasn't changed much. That part has been obvious to me of what should've happened there.**

**and BOY have I been looking forward to showing you guys this chapter!**

* * *

H_e is in some dark void, standing on a glassy mural of some boy he has seen in his dreams once and a while. Confused, Roxas slowly walks forward onto this station, he stops when two ghostly figures appear before him. _

_"The path ahead is filled with hardship and loss, pain will be your long companion, but do not be afraid." One that gives off a very strong light speaks. There's no voice but Roxas still 'heard' their words._

_Each of these two reach their hands out and they both summon Roxas's Kingdom Key keyblade._

_ "You hold the power of two." The other one speaks. This one gives Roxas the sense that this figure is excited about whatever is going to happen. _

_ Hesitantly, Roxas take each of the offered keyblades, getting a strange sense that he got something more than just a weapon. Confused, he eyes the two figures, but they are gone. He jumps when several Nobody Dusk appears. _

_"Don't stop fighting, keep moving and one day…" _

_ Roxas grip around the two keyblades tighten and like an instinct, he crosses them over one another, the one in his right becomes white and the name Oathkeeper rings through his mind, the one in his left becomes black and Oblivion whispers into his ear. And even though he has never wielded two weapons at the same time before, Roxashas no trouble using his two new keyblades on the intruding dusks. _

_"you will be your own person." _

_ The station shatters and he falls into the depth of this void. An orb of light flies past him and along with the shards; a new pillar gets created. This one has the colors of the setting sun, him sleeping at the right side, holding the two keyblade, and in smaller frames, a picture of his friends and a boy he only recognizes from his dreams and his own face, though Roxas have never smiled like that before. At the feet of this sleeping him is the clock tower of Twilight town. Roxas stares at this pillar, having a strange sense that this truly belongs to him. This pillar fades away, disappearing into the blackness of the void._

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Slowly, the world returns to Roxas, it takes him a moment, but when he does, Roxas realizes the woman from that camp is hovering over him. She lets out a sigh of relief, seeing him awake. "You're awake, gave us quite the scare there." She smiles down to him. Roxas does not answer her, still a bit confused about what happened, and why his body feels so light of a sudden? So strange. Shifting his gaze to the left, he sees Axel. His friend is standing nearby, looking worried, but Roxas notices a certain calmness over him, like he cannot… oh right, no emotions. Sitting up, "What happened?" Roxas asks.

"What's the last you remember?" Axel asks and for once glad, he cannot feel genuine emotions, otherwise, he might've gotten into a full-blown panic attack from how Roxas passed out on him.

Pondering for a moment on what he last recalls before dreaming of that weird place. oh, right, he joined Axel in scouting the area after the Organization, on the way took out some of the Heartless. "I remember we fought some of the Heartless at the bamboo forest." They weren't strong, but that simple fight had left him exhausted.

At least he didn't lose a whole day worth of memories, good to hear. "That was about an hour ago, you passed out right after we got rid of them." Axel explains, and Miss Porter takes over.

"Your friend brought you here, he thought it would be safest while you were passed out."

Yeah, the camp of Jane here has more or less become his and Axel's base of operation since their desertion. It's not terrible but Roxas must admit that he is missing the time at the clock tower and not being constantly sweaty in the Organization cloak. That uniform is not made for warm and humid worlds.

Axel seems to be doing a lot better than him, Roxas has a feeling it's because of his strong affiliation to fire.

"Any pains, feeling dizzy?" Jane asks.

Roxas shakes his head, in fact, "I feel a lot better than I have for quite some time." he observes. If he didn't know any better, Roxas say he feels a lot stronger than ever before.

"Your strength must be returning." Axel speaks, that is a good sign. Spares him from constantly watching the kid's back. Turning to the woman who has shown them a lot of hospitality from this week of their stay. "Thanks for the quick aid."

"It's no problem." Jane replies to these two quite helpful strangers. "Least I can do in you keeping the jungle free from those monsters."

Sensing Axel has giving the hint for them to leave, Roxas get out fro the bed and follows Axel outside. They walk in silence, only broken by Roxas's question, "Were you worried about me?"

"What kind of question is that?" Axel laughs, kid has been acting so strange since he told him about his human past. "Of course, I worry about you, numbskull." And has to ask. "Why are you asking?"

"It just never seems to reach your eyes." Roxas remarks softly, he still has the picture with Axel's Saix's Somebody and every time he looks at it, he is reminded in Axel is unable to get the same glint in his eyes as he could as human.

Axel stops so abruptly that Roxas almost bumps into him.

Looking down at the kid, meeting those depressive blue orbs, '_He makes it look so easy.' _he cannot help but think, yeah it has gotten easier to emote emotions, but it does not change the harsh fact; "Roxas… I don't have a heart." He shakes his head lightly, the ghost sense of frustration in knowing all of his emotions are from merely his memories is getting to him. "Unlike you, I have to remember how each emotion feels like." Axel's not entirely sure why he's raising his voice. '_He no idea how lucky he is, to be able to emote this easily.' _

"What's that suppose to mean?" Roxas demands a bit angry at Axel's words, yet he can't shake the feeling that this has bothered his friend for a long time. Axel walks away, this pisses Roxas off, he hates when Axel does that, and only the fact they are best friends; he does not blow up in Axel's face.

Axel stops, sighs and turns halfway back to the blond teenager, that is currenly glaring daggers at him. "Tell me, do you have a burning sense?" He taps his chest, "Right here?" The glare disappears, replaced with confusion, slowly Roxas nods. Axel turns away from him, not sure how to really react to this revelation, or he has only realized now that after so many signs during this small year they have known each other. "It's called anger, you're angry at me and that… is a emotion."

"You have shown emotions too." Roxas points out but is starting to get an idea why so many things in the Organization has been so infuriating for him. Like how the members never seemed to care about each other and busier doing their own thing. Axel and Saix haven't been like that, they both tried so hard in helping him and Xion out; that is why he and Axel are here and not in the Organization. "If you do not truly care, then why risk so much?"

"To be honest." Axel smiles weakly back to him, "I don't truly understand it myself, only I think it's something Lea would've done." he turns back to the humid forest they have been in for about a week now. Being around Roxas does make him feel more human, making him determent to keep this friendship.

Roxas walks up beside him, letting his mind wander for a bit about the subject, and well, a conversation he had with Axel during one of the many talks at the clock tower. A talk on how Axel was as human and his friend had answered that he was more or less the same. He takes the bit crumpled picture up from his pocket. '_I can see what he meant'._ Lea seems to be like Axel, maybe a bit more enteric and beaming. Roxas wonders if that will return if Axel ever got his heart back. "Axel?" The red-haired glances down to him. "Do you want your heart back?"

Axel chuckles, again with those weird but way more thoughtful questions, Roxas sure has grown a lot during this year. Where did that blank zombie go? "I wouldn't have been working for the Organization otherwise." He jokes lightly, but the smile quickly disappears at what payment he had to pay for Roxas safety. "But that's not going to happen. Doubt Xemnas will let a traitor anywhere near Kingdom Hearts." He speaks as if it's no big deal, but that's possible the only regret he has from have pulled off this stunt.

A flash of light and Roxas looks down to his right hand, he blinks when the Oathkeeper is there instead of the Kingdom Key he used to wield, and it's shape hasn't changed because of this keychain trick. This is the base form of his keyblade now. In wonder, he lifts his left and in smoke of shadows, the Oblivion appears. '_Huh, so it wasn't a dream.' _

Dismissing Oblivion, Roxas turns to Axel. "Well, I can capture hearts with the keyblade, and who knows, maybe one of them will be yours." Axel gives him a weird look, then he puts a hand to his face, laughing. Roxas is not sure if he should be annoyed or just plain confused as to why Axel is laughing.

That kid is really something, "You really don't know when to quit, do you?" Axel asks Roxas, still chuckling at this crazy suggestion that is almost worth those he made as a kid. Roxas gives him a look, and Axel replies to the kid, still smiling at the very suggestion of somehow finding his heart in the giant needle of a haystack of Heartless. "All right, it does not hurt to try." And gesturing out to the world, "And you're really up to it, then I know the perfect world to start." Roxas nods, having a determent gleam Axel has seen in Sora before, yeah, Roxas is his Nobody, alright.

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Outside the city of Hollow Bastion, a portal opens and out from it, the two deserted Nobodies appear. Axel closes the portal and briefly explains the young keyblade wielder. "This is my Somebody's home-world. It might be a long shot but there should be a chance one of the Heartless here having my heart."

Roxas nods and they go out searching for Heartless. It did not take long before Heartless appeared and they start mauling on them, Axel helped to weaken the Heartless but always made sure Roxas did the killing blow. They fought for quite a while, and right as it seems the Heartless are easing up, a huge Behemoth appears. Those things are slow but powerful.

Axel sets his chakrams on fire "be ready!" and hurls them at the giant Heartless. Roxas runs over, whacking it with his now light-colored keyblade, at first hitting the thing's legs but it has no effect. Axel has fought one of those things before, so he knows the Behemoth Heartless weak point. "Go for the horn!" He calls and throws both of his weapons at the horn. Roxas does as told and begins to hit it, the Heartless starts to charge up a nasty lighting attack. "Watch out!" Right there, another keyblade appears in Roxas's left hand and with a flurry of strikes onto the horn, as if Roxas has always been able to dual wield, the Heartless falls and releases its heart.

Axel stares dumbfounded as the boy lands onto the ground, unable to stop staring at the second keyblade in Roxas's hand. "Since when could you do that?" He asks, pointing at the black keyblade.

Eyeing his two keyblades and Roxas shrugs, "From a weird dream I guess."

"You don't say." Axel laughs weakly, his friend sure keeps on surprising him, but hey, "You handled your new blade like a pro. Are you trying to steal my style, Roxas?" He asks teasingly.

Roxas grins widely at the tease and Axel laughs as well, and still grinning, he turns his gaze back to the new arrived Heartless. "Watch and learn the expert of dual-wielding." He runs at the Heartless.

Roxas is quick to join him and for some reason, this whole battle turned into a competition of who can throw off the most flamboyant attack.

The fight for Axel does come to a sudden halt when a creature he has seen before as a child suddenly runs around him. It's a yellow fox with aurora collar and tail. Axel eyes land on the symbol on this familiar fox's side… a ice-blue armored heart, '_A Keeper.' _he realizes.

The fox Keeper gives him a look, then after have run around him once, it runs towards his home town. Axel decides to follow, he knows Roxas can handle the Heartless without him just fine. With a strong sense of déjà vu, Axel follows the fox up to the castle, this time though he did take the front gate but like last time; he lost sight of the creature. "Of course…" Axel muses and is about to return to Roxas, he hears a gasp, followed by a familiar voice. "Axel?"

Axel eyes wide and spins around, if he got a heart, he would've gotten one hell of a surprise in seeing Zexion standing there. Out of the Organization cloak and in the scientist outfit, looking quite startled to see him. "Zexion?" He asks, very certain he would've felt confusion in this situation.

'H_ow did he survive the replica? I watched him fade away.' _So how in the world is Zexion standing right before…? the somehow still alive Nobody bolts for it, and that catches Axel off guard. Zexion is not one to run away, but he guesses this senior member does not want to meet his end he somehow escaped from in Castle Oblivion. Axel is not planning on killing Zexion— well maybe, depends if that one is going to report to Xemnas about what truly happened in Castle Oblivion.

Axel takes pursuit of the other Nobody; catching up to him is rather easy but it's only confusing him more. '_Why isn't he teleporting?' _Well he's going to ask that.

Axel summons one of his chakrams and with it, trips the fleeing Zexion. Before the younger Nobody can get back up, Axel restrains him onto the floor, demanding: "Alright, how did you get away?"

Zexion does not answer, Axel at first mistakes this as loyalty for the Organization, but he then notices something strange. Those blue eyes, they are wide in fear, staring at him in a manner that knows he's going to die. Axel blinks, Zexion hasn't shown any sort of emotion in the Organization, so seeing him do a very genuine act of being afraid— no Zexion has utterly frozen up due to fear. Unable to fight back, can only stare in the most genuine terror he has ever… wait a minute… Axel removes one of his gloves and puts it onto Zexion's neck. The other Nobody flinches, he ignores that, way too focused on what truth he's about to uncover.

Zexion skin is sweaty, trembling, but also warm to the touch, Nobodies does not regenerate much body heat, giving them a constant sense of cold. And then there's the damming proof as to why Zexion reacted this manner.

A pulse.  
A heartbeat.

Axel jerks away from the younger man, he stares at the still frozen in fear young man. "You're… you're human?" Zexion— or whatever he's named, slowly breaks free from his terrified stupor and slowly gets up. "How?"

Shaking his head, trying to recover from that wave of emotions, made him unable to think properly. If he could, then Ienzo would've thrown whole page worth of spells at Axel, but his darn heart kept him from that. Fortunately, Axel didn't look like he's planning on killing him, but just to be sure as he does NOT trust this guy. Magic surrounds his hand and Ienzo throws Axel to the nearest wall with a binding spell. With him secured, Ienzo has time to recover from that panic attack. Taking a deep breath, Ienzo gets on his feet and turns to the Nobody. "You be happy I'm not working for the Organization anymore. Otherwise I would've plummet you with meteor strikes for what you did in Castle Oblivion."

Ah, yeah Axel figures he deserves this treatment. He did assassinate Zexion with the replica. But he's way more interested in this mystery standing before him. "How did you get your heart back?" Zexion rolls his eyes and Axel exclaims back, "Oh come one! Do you have any idea how much I want to have my heart back?" Zexion's human can't be like that.

"I have an idea." Ienzo replies coldly. He's still resentful about the whole being murdered by the replica incident, and tormenting Axel by withholding information is a small sort of revenge. "But why should I tell you this little secret after the stunt you pulled off? After what you did…" Memory flashes by in how Zexion got killed, but also what Zexion saw Axel do to… Ienzo has to look away from how much it hurt thinking about it now, it's a struggle not to shed any tears. "What did you did to Vexen...?"

"It looks like I did you and him a favor."

Bad choice of words. "Even hasn't returned!" Ienzo snaps back and hits this Nobody with a powerful gravity spell, throwing Axel flat to the floor. "You might've helped us regain humanity, but I would've preferred not having to deal with constant nightmares in how Zexion was killed!" It's bad enough he has to deal with the regret of what and he and the others did towards so many innocent people and their home. If it wasn't for the support group of unlikely friends and Aeleus, then Ienzo would've broken down a long time ago. "I have enough to deal with already! And for all I know, your assassination of Vexen might have caused so much damage to his body that he cannot return. Maybe you truly killed him, did that thought cross your mind Axel?!" He snaps at the red-haired Nobody, and it feels cathartic to let out his anger towards Axel like this.

Okay, Zexion's human is not only way more emotional but much, much stronger than his Nobody, Axel can literally feel the magic oozing out from this one. Whatever survival instinct a Nobody now has is screaming for him to get the hell away, but he can't thanks to that gravity spell. "Alright, alright, I messed up! Will you tone back that magic aura of yours?!" Axel cries out, that aura of Ienzo is scaring the crap out of him, and that's saying a lot when he does not have a heart for such emotions. Yeah sure, a lot of powerful people can make elemental aura's, Axel is one of them, but the one Ienzo makes is at least twice stronger than the fire cloak Axel has ever conjured up.

Ienzo blinks, and looks down at his hands, raw magic is surrounding them. "Hm, that's interesting." Ienzo muses, he wasn't aware he could do such a thing. Fisting his hands, the aura slowly fades and Axel stops struggling against his spell, not that it would've done anything. "That has never happened before, makes me wonder if I have gained more magical potential now that I am recompleted." He sure couldn't pull anything off like that as Zexion.

Eyeing Axel, the guy is now staring at him in a manner that makes Ienzo think about a starving man taunted by food just out of reach. That is to be expected in this case; every Nobody wants to regain the very ability to feel emotions, to be complete. "Tell me Axel, what will you do for this knowledge of regaining your heart?" He asks, pondering if Axel will go at any length as he did during Castle Oblivion. Axel does seem to have changed a bit, but Ienzo can't be certain since his views have changed a lot after his recompletion.

Axel almost would've said that he would do anything, but stops himself. '_He might have a heart now, but this is still Zexion, the schemer of all schemers.'_ And this guy will use whatever he says next to his full advantages. "Almost everything." Zexion's human titles his head at this, gesturing him to explain further on this reply. "I won't betray my friends, not even for the sake of my own humanity." Axel might have done it a year back, but now; no freaking way.

"Friends, huh?" Ienzo muses, yeah, that sounds like Lea alright. "Even without a heart, you still care for your friends. Don't you find that quite the irony?"

"Oh, so I can't have friends and you can still consider the senior staff your family?" Axel retorts, he knows it's a low blow, and will probably getting plummet for this. Zexion's human eyes turn sharp of being jagged in a very sensitive spot, especially when Vexen's human hasn't returned. Back in the early days of the Organization, Zexion rarely left Vexen's side and even up to the events of Castle Oblivion, to see those two together wasn't an uncommon sight. Every mad scientist needs an apprentice Axel figures, but he's not going to say that to the Cloaked Schemer's face, young man looks pissed enough as it is.

Before Ienzo can come up with a diabolic idea to hurt Axel, Aeleus arrive, calling with a worried tone. "Ienzo, I felt your magic, is everything—" Right about there, he spots Axel, kept down by a gravity spell. Aeleus frowns deeply and summons his weapon, "What are doing here?" he demands angrily and worries they have been discovered.

He just can't help himself being cheeky here. "Like I always do; sneaking into the castle."

"Very funny." Ienzo rolls his eyes at Axel cheeky remark, and turns to Aeleus, assuring the large man. "I got this little problem under control."

Aeleus nods but it does not stop the man from pointing out to Axel. "You were the cause of our Nobodies demise, the possible death of Even." For it's starting to look like that Vexen's human self won't be returning.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"You're not sorry." Zexion— no, Ienzo sneers, his blue eyes are now filled with detest and Axel knows he deserves every ounce of it.

"Not truly, but I don't have a heart," Axel points out and although he doubts Ienzo has forgotten about it from how the former Nobody is clearly showing genuine emotions, "but you have."

"Clearly." the young man grumbles dryly, he casts a look at Aeleus, the guard recognizes the quiet request and the moment Aeleus has stepped over to the restrained Nobody, ready to use his weapon if needed. Ienzo dismisses his spell, allowing Axel to get back on his feet. "This isn't an act of mercy, Axel." It's a command of his heart, one Ienzo cannot ignore from how loud it still is. He will give Axel the benefit of the doubt but if that guy so much tries to screw him over like last time. He won't hesitate to imprison Axel down in the dungeon, making sure he never will escape.

At least Ienzo is willing to give him a chance. Aeleus… Axel casts the large man, having a look he very much would like to break every bone in him. Yeah, he's not as forgiving. "Right," He takes his hands up to the glaring guard, "no troublemaking, promise." Aeleus looks as if he has to restrain rolling his eyes. Turning away from the looming giant and to the one who might hold the answers to how he can regain his heart. "Look, for what's it's worth. Sorry for what I did, but, you got to tell me what you know about this." He speaks in a softer tone, the young man meets his eyes and Axel do wonder if he really has to beg, fortunately:

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Ienzo figures he should tell Axel. He and Saix have been in the same boat as him. They both lost their hearts as kids as well, and with the answer this close, yeah, it must be pure torment for Axel. He turns fully to the Nobody. "I have a theory on how this happened; if one's heart has been freed from a Heartless and their Nobody destroyed, the person will return." His thoughts go back to right after he cast his heart aside all those years ago. "Ah, I remember now. After Heartless's destruction, my heart was sent to another realm, waiting for my Nobody destruction. It seems that the world, Traverses Town was solely created to give those unable to go home, a refuge for the lost. And perhaps—"

"Okay, that's enough." Axel stops Ienzo river of about this whole gets one's heart back subject. He does not recall Zexion being this chatty, it must be a side effect of having a heart again. Zexion's human shoots him an annoyed look from have been interrupted. Axel ignores it and summons what he understand about this up. "So, the destruction of one's Nobody leads to a recompletion of the person, yeah?"

"Yes, if the heart has been released by a keyblade" Ienzo replies, still miffed at Axel stopping his theory. He titles his head when Axel groans and starts walking off. "Hm? Something wrong?"

Stopping not far from the two recompleted members, Axel explains, "There might. See, this past year, Roxas has been gathering hearts for the Organization, all which has gone to a Kingdom Hearts in The World That Never Was." and if what Ienzo said is true, then, well… "I do not think Xemnas is gonna give us our hearts as he kept promising us."

"No, I don't think he will." Ienzo agrees with him. "More likely use the power of this fake Kingdom Hearts for whatever he's truly planning."

Axel takes a step forward and Ienzo, who without knowing, tense up, still deeply traumatized from what he did to him. Both he and Aeleus saw that, the latter sends him a death glare and Axel wisely keeps his distance since he does not want to get into a fight with a guy whose Nobody could throw giant Heartless around as if they were nothing. So with a safer distance from the one Aeleus is so protective about, Axel points out to Ienzo. "But you and Lexaeus are the proof we do not need Kingdom Hearts, we can regain our hearts some other way." He can become a human again! There is something after this miserable state and even if there might not be, then at least the chance of regaining his heart is enough for Axel to no longer see his whole existence so depressive. And knowing there is an easier way, it makes Axel wonder why these two haven't tried to get in contact with the other Nobodies. "The others should know about this."

"No, Axel." Ienzo tells the Nobody hard, he has long thought about this and it might be fine with some of the members but if this came to Xemnas's ears. "You cannot tell anyone in the Organization about this." He is fearful of what might happen if Xemnas finds out that he cannot control the members with the promise of gaining a heart through his artificial Kingdom Hearts. Axel gives him a confused stare, so Ienzo elaborates. "Xemnas is using the Organization for some sort of plan only he knows. He was the one who persuaded me, Aeleus, Even, Dilan and Braig to cast our hearts into the darkness; turning us into Nobodies." He shakes his head briefly in an attempt to subdue his raging emotions of fear towards that man. "Whatever he's going to use Kingdom Hearts for, it's not for the benefit of anyone but him. If he knows about us…" Ienzo shudders, "he won't be as merciful in simply killing us. He will engulf our hearts in darkness, and most likely turn us back into Nobodies and make sure we'll never be able to reach our hearts." And he cannot handle living a life as an unfeeling husk, not after he has felt all these emotions and realized in how much he has been missing.

Axel is starting to see why these two haven't been trying to contact the Organization. It's the same why Saix has become very reluctant to be openly defiant towards Xemnas. The leader of the Organization is not messing around. Zexion has a good point. He and Lexaeus will be in grave danger if Xemnas found out they are alive. Best to save the remaining human Nobodies by destroying their bodies. "All right, I will keep this to myself." Axel promised the young apprentice, but he will tell Saix if he meets his old friend. Saix needs to know there is still hope for them to become human again.

Now, Axel thinks he's left Roxas alone long enough. "I better leave." he tells Ienzo.

"I think it would be for the best." The young apprentice replies, adding with a hard gleam in his blue eyes. "Don't make us regret this, Axel."

Axel does not answer, but the gleam in those mostly emotionless eyes shows that the fire wielder knows he has a lot of redemption. Ienzo begins to leave but does stop at the door and turns to Axel when the Nobody asks: "What do you think would happen to Roxas if he returns to Sora?" This is an odd question but Ienzo thinks he knows where it is coming from. Riku has been keeping him up to date on what is going on.

"Sora won't ever be whole without his Nobody and from what Marluxia made Naminé do to him— I would say that Roxas needs to go back to Sora if that boy ever hopes to regain his full strength."

…. He feared as much, Zexion's human leaves him to his own thoughts and Axel got a lot to think about. He leaves the castle and returns back to the Great Maw to find Roxas. He encounters the teenager about halfway and from Roxas expression, he has been looking for him.

"There you are." Roxas breathed out in relief he finally found Axel, quickly replaced with confusion to where his friend went. "Where did you go?"

Should he tell Roxas the truth? Axel can't see the harm in it, other than Roxas might start whacking him with those two keyblades of his. "I went up to the castle and found—" His words got cut off by something striking him from behind, swiftly followed with sharp pain. Not enough to get him down onto the knee but enough to stop the conversation. Axel grabs the teen and teleports them both into the corridors of darkness, away from whatever hit him, Axel reaches to where he got hit and pulls out the object. It reveals to be one of Xigbar's bullets. Seeing this, Axel knows instantly that being in a corridor of darkness won't keep them safe for long. "Run!" He commands Roxas and fortunately, the boy obey his command. They start sprinting, but barely five seconds later, countless of Nobody Dusks appear, trying to block their way. "Don't stop Roxas!" Axel calls, summons his weapons and throws the flaming chakrams at the blocking Dusks, blowing them up in a wall of fire.

Well aware who is hunting them down, he spotted Xigbar standing on the cliff, Roxas does not object of the command from Axel, he summons his two keyblade and with a flurry of strikes of where Axel detonated his weapons, a path is created. He and Axel swiftly run past the Dusks. The lesser Nobodies take pursuit, one of the Dragoon dusks strikes right beside Roxas, and it would've hit, if he hadn't seen the attack coming. He changes position and with Oblivion, slices that Lesser Nobody clean in half. That single defeated Nobody got replaced with at least ten more, quickly starting to overwhelm him and Axel.

"There's too many!"

"I think I liked them better when they were on my side." Axel laughs humorless, throws another chakram at fast approaching hoard before opening a path to whatever world they might end up in. "Let's see if a change of battlefield might even the odds" Roxas nods and both hurries through.

They jump out from the portal, ending in a beautiful forest, for a moment Axel mistakes it for the place where that Keeper snake lives, but then notices several differences that show it is not the same world. Can't think too long about it though, for the Nobody he used to control appears from the ground, flailing its arms at him. Axel blocks the lesser Nobody, swiftly grabs it and hurls it at a Gambler where it explodes, taking both out. A Berserker appears and before he can get away, it hits him hard in the chest, throwing Axel hard into a nearby tree. The Berserker lifts its weapon but does not strike right away.

"He_ requires your appearance."_

Axel jerks his head up to the Lesser Nobody under Saix's control, what it said, it means his friend is here. "Where?" He demands it. The Berserker points to a large tree root before it attacks. Axel dodges the large hammer and throws a high-level fire spell right at it. Does not take it out, but does distract the thing long enough for him to strike and ends its existence. Axel then turns to check on Roxas and decides to let Saix wait in exchange to aid the teen. He leaps into the hoard surrounding Roxas and with a flurry of fire and light, takes out the Lesser Nobodies, when sure they won't get more at their face for the moment. Axel turns to the large tree root; Saix is standing there, watching.

Following Axel's gaze, Roxas spots their blue-haired friend. "Is that Saix?" He asks, Axel does not answer, merely walking over. Roxas follows. Reaching Saix, Axel asks in a joking manner: "Was that to throw off suspicion or have I forgotten to turn off the washing machine again?"

Saix drops his head with a smile, it's a sad one though. "Nno, it was legit." Both stare at him in confusion. Saix sighs but might as well give them this unfortunate news flash. "I'm not on your side, Xemnas made sure of that."

"What do you mean?" Axel asks, horrified that Xemnas again got his friend under his control. "Dang it Isa, why do you keep letting them reduce you to this?!" He exclaims, didn't care Roxas heard Saix human name, he already knows it anyway.

Can't say he likes being their puppet, "I don't have a choice." he tells Axel in a sad matter of fact. "If I resist, they will eliminate Shion, and if she dies we won't even know it." This catches both attention, he can't explain them fully the situation, soon Xigbar will arrive and then he will be forced to take them down. "There's not much time. I cannot disobey my to the ground below. "When Xigbar arrive, I will turn my weapon against you." His eyes land on Roxas. "Xemnas wants you back, I am to bring you alive but…" He turns to Axel, the command was clear.

That look, it more than enough to know where he lies in this situation. "You have been commanded to take me down."

"Yes," Saix summons his weapon, this time it's the one he got from the Organization, Axel did the same, but Roxas, did not understand how things work, went in between them.

"No! We shouldn't fight one another! Saix," The blond boy turns to his blue-haired friend. "We can do this, together."

"If things were that simple." Saix replies, he does not like the idea of having to strike down his oldest friend, but at least he will make it quick compared to Xemnas, who most likely is going to turn Axel into a mindless husk. He notices Xigbar appear by portal, watching his every move, Saix closes his eyes for a moment, then he strikes at Axel, who blocks the claymore and after have pushed his weapon away, Axel throws his two weapons at him. Saix jumps away from the flying chakrams, to then charge at his oldest friend, wishing that it was just fun sparring and not a deathmatch.

Not wanting to see the two try and kill one another, Roxas runs over in hope to break them up, but before he can, Roxas hits something hard, knocking his air out and ends onto the ground. sitting up, Roxas sees Xigbar stand on seemingly empty air, grinning smugly down to him. "Really thought we wouldn't find you?" Roxas quickly jumps back on his feet and with Oathkeeper in hand, charges at the Freeshooter, but right before his blade hits Xigbar's stupid grinning face, the keyblade stops. Roxas gasps at whatever is keeping the blade from reaching its target. He gets his answer when a dark grey claw appears around the keyblade, the owner to this claw dismisses its cloak, revealing itself to be a dark grey scorpion with light grey spots around the legs and down its back. Red streaks on claws, under the eyes, and the one on the tail surrounds a sigil that reveals what this creature is, "A Keeper?!" Roxas exclaims startled.

Xigbar jumps off the Keeper. "A little gift from a former friend of yours." He smirks, magenta flames-like electricity arrive on the scorpion's back, and starts to gather at the end of the tail, heating up by the second, then, Xigbar makes a gun hand sign at Roxas. "Bam." The scorpion Keeper fires a plasma ball right at the young keyblade wielder.

He tries to block it, but the electric fire explode out from the ball by the impact, yeah, getting hit by those is a really terrible idea. Roxas jumps away from the Keeper, jumping away from any other shot it makes. The scorpion Keeper takes pursuit, and from how it keeps getting in front of him, proving to be a lot more agile than expected from a six-legged creature. Roxas hits out after this Keeper, but every time it moves just enough out of the way that he misses, staring at him with its piercing blue eyes in a manner that makes Roxas think it is laughing at him, which pisses him off.

He summons his second keyblade and starts to throw pillars of light at this creature. It dodges most but does get hit, though it quickly retaliates by blasting more of those electric fireballs at him before going invisible. Roxas would've searched for the thing; if not Xigbar decided to join the fight, forcing him to focus on the one-eyed man.

For some reason, Xigbar found his anger funny.

"Oh, that throw me back, he used to glare at me the exact same manner!"

No idea what he is talking about, not that he really cares. Roxas leaps at Xigbar, correcting his two keyblades and hits the man right in the chest, forcefully dismissing his gravity magic.

"Ow, yeah, you definitely got your strength back." Xigbar grimaces in pain and must say, it's quite the surprise Roxas can wield two keyblades.

Roxas moves for another attack but is stopped by a mirage of plasma balls, looking up, he sees the scorpion Keeper, hanging on the tree trunk watching him with its tail charged up for another attack. This is going to get tricky, did not expect Xigbar would have gained the aid of a Keeper.

Meanwhile, Axel is giving his all, not holding back even if the one he's fighting is his oldest friend, Saix seems to be holding back, which is good, for if Saix decides to give his all, then Axel won't stand much of a chance. Their weapons clash and locks together, making the two friends stare into each other's eyes; Axel is grinning, "Hey, it seems like I can measure up to you now," he remarks.

Saix does not reply, no wonder, it's clear he does not want this but is forced to do it, for the safety of their other friend. Axel glances over to where Roxas is fighting Xigbar and some other Keeper. He really hates to do this but… it seems the worlds needs Sora more than Roxas at the moment. "Saix, I learned another way to be recompleted."

Saix blinks, for a moment forgetting to put force into his weapon, Axel does however not use this to his advantage, continuing on keeping their weapons locked as well as their eyes. "Zexion and Lexaeus, I spoke to them inside the castle— it's a long shot, but it looks like the destruction of the Nobody can lead to recompletion." Axel explains, he glances over to where the sound of Xigbar's battle towards Roxas can be heard. "Can you do me a favor? Make sure Sora frees the hearts in Kingdom Hearts?"

Saix narrows his eyes at what Axel is inclining, what has to happen; a sad outcome for their group, but well, if it can right the wrongs, then so be it. "I'll make sure it happens." He puts strength into his claymore, forcing Axel back, a slash and the red-haired is thrown to the ground. Saix walks over to Axel, who does no longer tries to defend himself. His friend gives him a determent nod, and Saix, strikes him square in the chest. Axel drops, shadows swirling out from his broken body, fading away. Saix wants to kneel down and hold his dying friend in his arms, offer him some comfort but… he can't…

Axel smiles weakly up to him, "Let's meet, in the next life." and Saix replies softly. "Wait for me there, friend." That smiling face is the last thing he sees from Axel. Saix drops his head, hoping that he has set his friend free, whatever the manner.

"No! Axel!"

Saix turns around and in last second blocks Roxas's two keyblade, how he's able to wield two keyblade, Saix has no idea, not that it matters. He stares into Roxas mournful but mostly enraged blue eyes.

"How could you Saix?!" The teen demands in his grieving fury.

Saix does not respond by words, he has to stick to the guise. '_Remember this anger, and use it to strike me down.' _Saix thinks it would be fitting if Roxas will be the one to destroy this body, but highly doubts that will be the case with the new plan he and Axel have made. Saix goes into his Berserk mode, and with his extra blade claymore, strikes Roxas, not giving the kid the chance to recover, he hurls his weapon at Roxas and Xigbar fires a powered up bullet at the poor child.

Roxas passes out from the injuries he received and dismissing his Berserk mode, Saix picks up the boy, ignoring Xigbar's smug remark: "Never thought you had it in you, striking down your own comrades." He does not respond, merely opens a portal and begins the walk back to the castle.

Xigbar follows and must admit, he hadn't expected Saix to actually kill his own friend, but it sure makes things easier without flamesilocs meddling. Smirking, he waves his hand, enough to make the scorpion Keeper shrink itself and get onto his arm, where it takes its spot on his shoulder. Sure comes in handy having a Keeper to help him out. Forgot how useful one can be.

* * *

**quite a long chapter, but I couldn't really find a good place to split it up. oh well.**

**you can imagine how different things will be now that Axel is out from the picture.  
also, do you want to see more of the Keepers? or are their brief appearance good enough?**


	22. The final day

When Roxas gained conscience, he found himself inside his former room and even though it's nice to be back in a real bed, the return is far from a happy one. He is still greatly affected have watched one of his best friends eliminate Axel, one he has come to understand a lot better in their time away from the Organization.

"Welcome back, Roxas."

Eyes wide in surprise and Roxas turns, at the door stands the superior, Xemnas. Confused but also angry as he's certain Xemnas commanded the elimination of Axel. "Did you give Saix the command to take down Axel?" He asks the leader of the Organization.

Xemnas nods slowly, not once bothered by the anger showing in the boy. He can understand it though; anger is one of the few emotions he can recognize yet never felt it in his existence. "Whoever betrays the Organization is to be eliminated." He begins to explain the keyblade chosen one. "Once Axel was tasked taking out traitors, but after he removed you from the Organization: he became the biggest traitor of them all." He shifts from his spot and, in a calm manner and steps away from the door. "Because of Axel's meddling, Saix has become unfocused and lagging in his duties. The link needed to be cut away."

How can Xemnas say that? Axel and Saix knew each other back when they were human. They have been friends for such a long time and Xemnas commanded Saix to take Axel down as if it's no big deal. "Why Saix? Of all the members, why him?" In Roxas's eyes, it is so wrong turning friends against one another like Xemnas did.

A smile, cold and cruel crawls onto the superior's face. "Saix has always been rebellions; the memory of his human past commands him so. Axel, always loyal to his friends, encouraged his unacceptable actions. I had thought my former punishment should've taught Saix his place, that he shouldn't heed Axel's words to remember such trifle behavior."

"What… what do you mean by former punishment?" Roxas asks, starting to understand why Saix has been so hesitant to openly show his friendship to him, Xion and Axel.

Xemnas gestures to his own forehead, making an X shape, exactly where Saix got that scar. Roxas's eyes wide in shock. Did… Did Xemnas do that to him? And now, because Saix and Axel tried to help him and Xion, Xemnas forced Saix to kill his oldest friend. He finally sees what Xemnas is: a cruel man who does not care about anyone but himself.

"Roxas, I will look past your action in following Axel, but be warned;" Xemnas turns around in a move to leave the room. "if you stray away from our goal, know your friend will suffer the same fate as Axel." and with that, he leaves.

Roxas, never felt this horrible in his entire existence, he puts his knees up to his chest, struggling to keep back the tears of the great despair he feels about this whole situation.

He barely slept that night and when he walks into the Grey Area, Roxas feels so much worse when he finds Xigbar is now handling (very annoyed) out missions. Saix is standing somewhat in a corner, at first staring out to the heart-shaped moon of Kingdom Hearts but when he turns around, Roxas feels a pang of pain in seeing how broken the blue-haired man looks and it has nothing to do with the wounds still visible on his skin.

Saix notices him, but does not approach, only turning away, refusing to make eye contact again. Roxas wants to speak with Saix, tell him that he has forgiven him for have eliminated Axel, now that he knows Saix didn't have any choice. But all Roxas manages is a single step.

"Hey, unless you want to lose him, I suggest you keep your distance from Moon boy and focus on your mission." Xigbar calls, the boy turns to him and seeing that heartbroken look does brighten up his hellish day thanks to that paperwork.

Roxas approaches him and Xigbar opens a portal to the world where Heartless needs to be slain- "Work hard tiger." He smirks to the broken boy and with him sent off, doubting Roxas will consider running off when Saix's life on the line.

Saix took notice of that threat coming from Xigbar. '_That's odd, he didn't mention Shion at all. It's like… he does not remember her being part of the group.' _For some reason, since she got implanted with some memory coming from him, everyone seems to have forgotten about Shion. Sure Xigbar is using her to keep him in check, but he's not calling her 'poppet' anymore, now it's 'flower,' and this makes Saix wonder if only he, Roxas and back then Axel can remember her? Both showed recognition when he mentioned her to them. '_Maybe I can use that for my advantage.' _But for now, he needs to keep his head down and be patient for the right time to strike on this idea of his.

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Completing the criteria of his mission, Roxas goes to the clock tower out of habit, but he can only taste the salt of the ice cream as he sits there alone, well aware there's no chance for his two remaining friends to join him and after have been on the run with Axel. Roxas can now see the contrast between the two ways of being. He will admit that being on the run has a lot of downsides but now, Roxas realizes that even with all of those, being out there gave him something he hasn't tried before; the freedom to choose. Axel only made a few rules, one of them was they needed to stick close to one another and run if told. Rest his friend let up to him, Roxas admit it was challenging to figure out what to do with himself but now he has returned to the Organization, well Roxas misses that sense of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Now he knows exactly how the days will be… collecting heart missions, eating ice cream alone, eat, sleep and repeat. For the first time in his short life, Roxas feels trapped and does not like that feeling one bit.

Weeks pass slowly by and Saix has a strong phantom sense of feeling pity for both Roxas and Shion. Both trapped in the Organization grasp, both slowly dying on the inside. Saix cannot do much for Shion at the moment, he needs more time for that part, but for Roxas… he does not fancy doing it, but he needs to cut that boy loose.

Saix is glad that Xemnas is arrogant believing that everything goes after his plans. That the Organization follows his every whim. But after have been the second-in-command and many times has to personally deal with these knuckleheads, Saix knows that barely any of them holds any kind of loyalty to Xemnas, only fear of being dusked is what keeps them in check. Xigbar is way more troublesome to be honest. The man is natural a nosy one and hears more what is going around the castle than probably anyone. Does not make it any easier that the last Keeper Shion brought in got a liking to the Freeshooter, sticking around the man like some giant pet. Reminds Saix a bit of Swift, except he rather want that monster cat around than a freaky scorpion.

Xigbar is the reason to why Saix has kept his head down for this long, waiting for the right moment— or rather the time where that goddarn paperwork robs too much sleep. He does not miss that one bit.

When Saix senses that Xigbar's usual sharp attention has been dulled thanks to his new job as the second-in-command and insisting he can still be out on the field. Saix hands one of the Dusks a letter. "Give it to Roxas." He commands it. Even though he has lost a lot of his power by no longer being the second-in-command, the lesser Nobodies still listens to his command.

The dusk appears inside Roxas's room, drops the letter and scuttles off to do whatever these weaker-minded Nobodies now do. A bit confused, Roxas takes the piece of paper this dusk dropped. It's a letter and by the looks of it, and is from Saix.

_'Roxas, I have a very important request for you, and that is leaving the Organization and stay out from sight until you have become stronger. Do not worry about Xion and I. Xemnas wants me alive and as long I obey them, Xion will be safe. they will command me to hunt you down and when we meet, do not treat me as a friend but an enemy. I will be forced to go all out on you, so do not give me a chance to drag you back. _

_ Can you do that for me_?'

Roxas thinks he read this letter three times, hearing Saix voice make this request. Parts of him want to refuse, stay and do what the Organization wants but… he's sick and tired being trapped like this. Roxas has forgiven Saix for what he did to Axel, he won't feel any anger towards him when the actual person he has his hate turned against will send Saix after him: Xemnas. Dropping the paper, Roxas calls for a samurai nobody and when it appears, Roxas writes a single sentence onto the letter and hands it three items. "Bring them to Saix." It grabs the objects and leaves. Roxas

casts one look at Kingdom Hearts outside, before he opens the door and begins to leave, trusting Saix in his words that both he and Xion will be alright.

Halfway out from the castle, a blob of shadows appears. Roxas stops, preparing to fight, but when a certain monster cat appears from it. "Swift?" he lowers his weapons. Xion's pet walks over and begins to stroke its marked head against his leg, during an adorable whistling sound.

He kneels down and stroke this little friendly monster's head. "Did Xion send you?" Does she know about his departure? Not sure, but it's nice to have bit of company. Roxas straightens up and begins to run again, "We better hurry, only a matter of time before the others find out." Swift follows and has no trouble keeping up with him. Well, now Roxas can see why she called it that. However, at the bridge that leads to that empty city, the scorpion Keeper appears. Lifting its tail, charging up for a plasma blast. Roxas prepares his keyblades for this unwanted rematch, "I don't have time to deal with you!" and rushes at the beast.

The scorpion Keeper dodges his first strike and blocks the second with its claw. Roxas notices that the tail has charged up and quickly jumps back hoping to get more space to dodge on.

But right as the Keeper is about to fire, Swift jumps forward, taking its bigger size and roars at the scorpion.

The scorpion Keeper backs away and the magenta flames subside, it does still glare at him.

Swift turns around to him, unsure why, but Roxas gets a strong sense that the current big cat-monster is telling him to leave. "Thanks, I owe you." He tells his friend's pet and hurries down to the city, passing the scorpion Keeper, it tries to stop him, but got slapped by Swift, making it focus on the cat-monster instead of him.

Roxas runs into the city's streets below, not stopping even when the roaming Heartless, the only residents of this city starts chasing him. Every single Heartless that tries to stop him gets taken down by his two keyblades. However, he does stop when Riku is blocking the way, and the way that older boy is standing. Roxas gets the feeling Riku here won't let him pass unless he beats him to a pulp. Well, fine by him. Roxas goes into battle position, preparing himself for battle. "Get out of the way!" He demands the older boy.

"I can't let you leave." Riku replies his friend's Nobody, he really does not want to do this, but he cannot risk Roxas disappearing on him again and thus removing the chance of waking Sora. "I want the rest of Sora's memories."

Again about Sora, it's always about him! Everyone thinks he is that person just because he is his Nobody. "Enough about Sora!" Roxas snaps back.

"Do you have some kind of plan?" Riku asks calmly.

"Until I have the strength to fight the Organization, I will stay in the shadows." Roxas replies, he has no wish to go back to Sora but he does not want to leave his two friends in the Organization clutches either. Readying his black keyblade. "And when that time comes, I can be with my friends again!"

He stands corrected, Roxas is going to disappear again. Something Riku cannot risk, not when Sora is so close to wake. "I can't let you do that. Whatever you like it or not." Riku summons his blade of darkness, getting into battle position, "You're coming with me." he charges at Roxas and the Nobody responds in kind.

Riku made the grave mistake in thinking Roxas would be fighting like Sora, but his friend's Nobody is much faster and way more aggressive than Sora. Not to mention his ability to dual wield keyblades makes him a difficult enemy, Riku tries to keep up but it's clear that Roxas great determination to be his own person and having two keyblades is giving him the edge. Not even the power of darkness is of much help against this aggressive Nobody of Sora.

Roxas defeats him and lying on the ground, Riku demands Roxas, most just to lower that ones guard. "Why?! Why do you have the keyblade?!"

That is a question he cannot answer, Roxas does not know why he, a Nobody has the keyblade, nor why he has two, "Shut up!" Roxas snaps enraged back and strikes out, Riku does get a hit in but Roxas bites through the pain and charges at him again, demanding enraged, "Why don't you quit?!"

Riku jumps away, glancing to his right when his constant companion appears briefly, laughing about this whole fight. "_He's wiping the floor with you! And it's so much funnier as he does gives me the sense of my brother, but he wasn't known for his anger." _Vanitas shrugs, he disappears when this Nobody runs through the dark boy only Riku can see.

Riku blocks the Oathkeeper keyblade with a shield, '_Then you two have that in common.' _He remarks back before testing something out on his friend's Nobody. "Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that." Riku calls out mockingly, the exact same manner he would back when he and Sora would challenge one another for a sword fight back on the island.

Roxas blinks, and without thinking, retorts back. "Get real. Look which one of us is winning." Which took his greatly by surprise as it isn't something he usually would respond to when Axel is teasing him. Roxas takes a hand up to his mouth and eyes the older boy who seems to have been hoping for this response.

"So it's true. You really are his Nobody." Riku muses.

This only pisses Roxas off further, sick and tired that everyone says he's supposed to be Sora. "No, I am me. Nobody else!" He reaches inside, taking hold on the power that gave him his elemental power and speeds over so fast that he leaves a trail of light behind. Riku didn't get the time to block his attack, and Roxas leaves an x-shaped slash over the other boy's chest. Riku cries in pain, but refuses to call it quits, much to Roxas annoyance. "How many times do I have to beat you before you get out of my way?!" Roxas demands to the collapsed older boy, unlike the Organization members, he won't have a problem taking Riku here down. Does not care if he's Sora's Nobody, in fact, this makes him just the more determinate to take Riku down. To show he is NOT Sora. Tightening his grip around the keyblades, Roxas charges over and unleashes a flurry of strikes at the older boy.

Quickly becoming apparent that Roxas does not fight like Sora, Riku tries to adapt to this Nobody's faster and much more offensive fighting style. It's hard to keep up and it does not make it any better Roxas has a strong affiliation to light. He does Vanitas's trick by teleporting behind the blond and did hit Roxas, but that only seems to enrage the Nobody further and Roxas unleashes pillars of light at him, knocking him off balance, to then get sliced by those keyblades, now surrounded in intense light.

_"Something feels wrong," _Vanitas suddenly speaks up, _"the light, it's not right.."_

Riku cannot answer; he's busier keeping up with these attacks of fury. Roxas is not an easy opponent, all this guy knows is fighting. Roxas unleashes another thirteen pillars of light, stronger this time and if not for the shield Ienzo taught him, then Riku would've lost this crucial fight. The blond lands on the ground, glaring at him with a fury Riku has never seen in Sora's eyes, there's a lot more darkness in this boy, but clearly also light since all of his attacks are light-based.

_"Oh, you gotta be shitting me!"_

That outburst almost got Riku's head split open by the Oblivion keyblade, struggling against the repeated strike from Roxas, '_What's wrong?' _he asks his dark companion.

He just realized what made this Roxas able to use light attacks even when he was engulfed in dark emotions: he's like him! No, this is much worse, Vanitas just sensed the other half of his heart, and the connection between them is no longer there which means… _"Riku, you have to end this fight right NOW!" _He tells the one he has tagged along for quite a while now and come to consider a decent rival.

Riku tries to gain the upper hand, but those light pillars that seem to get stronger and more intense each time that Nobody unleashes them, he just can't in close enough to finish this fight. Not to mention. '_Yeah, that's not going to happen. Roxas here is deadly up close.'_

_"I don't care, end this fight now or there won't be anything left of this Nobody! That light of his will burn him up!" _Vanitas cries, and he can see that it has already started. One more light attack and this Nobody will be destroyed by the light, and there's no coming back from that! He knows, because it almost happened to his brother._ "You have to unleash your full power!"_

This catches Riku's attention, after have dodged one of those keyblades and pushed Roxas back with a ball of darkness. _'if I do, then you…' _Vanitas might be a pain in the ass, but Riku won't cast him aside. He won't make that mistake again!

_"For crying out loud— Riku, forget about me!" _Vanitas snaps back, voice enraged, yet the tone has changed, like he has given up on himself. It does not sit right with Riku. _"I know what I am—there's no chance I can be saved. No one can change it. So, Riku, for the last time; will you just let go of me already?!"_

Riku hesitates, he does not like this one bit, but by the sounds of it, there's no choice. He has to use the darkness Ansem gave him, it's the only way he can defeat Sora's Nobody and stop whatever harming light Vanitas spoke about. '_I will come back for you.' _He promises one who he has come to consider a friend.

"_Don't bother, we both know I'm a lost cause."_

But Riku thinks otherwise, he has seen a change in the dark boy. There is hope for him. _'I'm not giving up on my friends.' _

Vanitas laughs, it's not sadistic or sarcastic, for the first time… he sounds hopeful. "_When you do, be prepared for getting hit by a ball of darkness for the shit you have put me through."_

"All right." Riku will agree to that as Vanitas's sort of promise that they will meet again. "I cannot let you leave Roxas." Riku gets on his feet and removes the blindfold that in a sense has shielded him from the shameful truth of where most of his darkness is coming from. "If you're not coming with me on your free will, I will drag you to Sora with the dark power I have been holding back." The blond does not back down, but has grown tense from his words. Darkness begins to surround him, Riku senses that his dark friend is being thrown out from his heart, and it saddens him greatly, but cannot think about that. "Even… if it changes me forever." He releases the darkness, letting it consume his entire body, changing it to fit this sheer but tainting might, all to help his friend.

Roxas did put up one hell of a fight, but he did not stand a chance against him this time.

Watching two people drag his beaten friend through a dark portal from atop the Memory Skyscraper. "I'll see you in the next life, Roxas" Saix bids his farewell to a teenage boy he never thought would be one he will consider as a friend. Pretty sure that if he had a heart, he would've spilled a few tears from the objects Roxas left to him. Now clenched in his right hand. It's three ice cream sticks, all having 'winner' mark, along with his letter that has one sentence: 'I forgive you' written on it.

Roxas is truly a compassionate person and that makes it so much harder to know what the boy will soon be claimed by Sora, who probably won't even be aware of having another one trapped inside his heart. "And I am sorry it won't be a good one…"

* * *

**There we go, this is the final chapter to Book 3. very soon I will start Book 4, which will be going in the KH2 timeline.**

**I look forward to see you there and always, hope you're enjoying this series.**


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